Getting by on handouts [Open]

[billy-blin.livejournal.com]

It seemed weird to think about it, but ever since arriving on the Meatship, Will hadn't really spent any time just...working. He'd taken the time to walk around, he'd met people, given some good advice (and lots of bad), tried to do well by people, but he hadn't taken the time to do what he did best; relax.

It was odd that even with the threat of dreams looming over them all, people were still...functioning; their worlds were dead, they were being driven into a war, and they had next to nothing, but they kept going. They weren't in the best moods, their tension had all gone through the roof, but they were surviving. And it was time for him to do his big as well.

He found a nice spot in the middle of the city park and sat down with his back against a large fountain with his guitar across his legs. He'd played a little, but not enough. This was who he was more than his powers. He may have been told he had a destiny in the celestial war, and he'd also been told he was to fight for all the multiverse against...whatever they were, but this was his real calling; busking.

It was a quick few minutes tuning up Ria, his old sixstring, before he set his hat down in front of him (habit more than anything, that) and began to pluck out a tune he'd known for years and always found appealing. After a minute or two to warm up, he began to sing a bit as well, lost in his own little world.

"Travailler c'est trop dur
et voler c'est pas beau
d'mander la charité
c'est qu'que chose j'peux pas faire
chaque jour que moi je vis
on m' demande de quoi je vis
j' dis que j' vis sur l'amour
et j'espère de viv' vieux.

Work's too bloody hard,
stealing isn't pretty.
Getting by on handouts
means getting by on pity.
Every day of my life
someone asks how I'll get by,
I say I'll live on love
and I hope to never die.

I’ll pick up this old box
run my fingers down the row.
I’ll play a tune or two
let the dancers come and go.
For this life’s too sweet and short
to leave it sad my friend
There’s no time for tears and sorrow,
let’s go dancing to our end.

Work's too bloody hard,
stealing isn't pretty.
Getting by on handouts
means getting by on pity.
Every day of my life
someone asks how I'll get by,
I say I'll live on love
and I hope to never die.

If I end up playing gigs
every night and every day,
any pub or any club
that will let me sing away.
I might think to myself
is this what i want to do
but I think I know the answer
when I sing and I look at you.

Work's too bloody hard,
stealing isn't pretty.
Getting by on handouts
means getting by on pity.
Every day of my life
someone asks how I'll get by,
I say I'll live on love
and I hope to never die."


He stopped playing after the song and took a long sigh. He smiled, his mind back where it belonged, and began to play again.

Comments

[voiceofserenity.livejournal.com]

A trip through the City, just to get a better look around, had apparently resulted in Kaylee's parking herself on a nearby bench to listen to the man with the guitar. It was a lot like sitting on the ship someplace with Jayne, listening to him strum along to some diddy the crew was singing.

Yeah, she could definitely get used to little moments like this particular one.

She listened through a few more songs, plenty pleased that somebody on this gorram boat knew how to have a decent time. Mal needed to come listen to this guy, she decided. Maybe it'd actually make him smile a bit.

For now, though, Kaylee finally gave her applause and walked up to the man. "Thanks, for sharin' with everybody."

[billy-blin.livejournal.com]

Blin smiled at the woman. "I've got no problems sharin' with an appreciative audience. Beats playing fer police any day."

[voiceofserenity.livejournal.com]

"S'posin' it does," Kaylee laughed, all agreement. "One thing you gotta worry 'bout a bit less here, thankfully."

[billy-blin.livejournal.com]

"Aye. Although, to tell ye the truth, I'd rather be worryin' about cops haulin' me off fer solicitin' in a park than be here with everything we've got ahead of us. All sign point te this bein' a long road, and not a very friendly one at that."

[voiceofserenity.livejournal.com]

"Got what we got." Not that she didn't mind Stacy all that much now, but the ship was uncomfortable at times, and she missed home something terrible. Still kept smiling, though. "Just gotta make the best of it, s'all. How long you been playin'?"

[billy-blin.livejournal.com]

"Honestly? I don't remember a point when I wasn't playin', so it's been at least ten years now. Everything before that's a wee bit fuzzy. Probably been playin' since I was a kid, seein' as I don't remember learnin'." He shrugged. "Like ye said, we work with what we've got."

[voiceofserenity.livejournal.com]

"You got a natural tick for it." The complete and honest truth. It was nice, just sitting down to listen. "And if you've been goin' at it that long, it's no wonder. I could listen to it all day, really."

[billy-blin.livejournal.com]

"Well, normally, I'd charge for that/ Gotta make a living, after all. But, seein' as this ship takes care of our bsic needs, and I'm not one for extravagance, I'll consider it payment fer that lovely hullabaloo ye started earlier. Nicest party I've been to in a good while."

[voiceofserenity.livejournal.com]

"Wouldn't blame ya at all if ya did, under normal circumstances." That was one thing Kaylee had to say for Stacy. No currency to worry over. "And I can't take all the credit for that, no matter how much I'd like to, since half of it was Claudia. But it's nice to hear that we did somebody some good with it."

[billy-blin.livejournal.com]

"Aye, it was a nice little break. Break from what, I couldn't tell ye; I haven't exactly been productive, as ye can see. But a break it was. I did meet Claudia there, actually. Something about batgirl," he shook his head. "I can't say as I recall much more than that. I was drinking, ye see."

[voiceofserenity.livejournal.com]

Productive or not, Kaylee and Claudia had organized the whole thing to help relieve some of the pressure this Nightmare King business had been putting on folks. She wasn't about to bring that up in such a pleasant conversation, though. "Yeah, not so sure I understand the Batgirl part myself, and I hardly had anythin' to drink. Different people, different places. It's an interestin' mash of cultures, that's for sure."

[magetrouble.livejournal.com]

Kala hadn't slept. Not in a long while. Not since the last dream with the fat flying, drooling bugs that ate Gessu and her village and her world. It wasn't real, but that didn't mean it wasn't gafting disturbing. She hadn't come to the park all that often, but today her wanderings had marched her toward the fountain and the sound of music. It wasn't really anything she recognized, save the voice. She sat on the edge of the fountain and listened to Mister Barlow for awhile.

And half dozed.

In the back of her mind, she was pretty sure she had something better to do. Like train. But her body had decided to take a slight vacation, and she had long perfected the semi-alert art of dozing, even if she hadn't meant to do anything other than listen to Mister Barlow's music.

[billy-blin.livejournal.com]

Blin kept playing, and of course singing, but he lowered his voice a bit anyway. Kala had earned her sleep, after all, and there was a bit of pride to being the one that finally let her get her rest.

[magetrouble.livejournal.com]

Kala dozed for awhile right up until she shifted partway into another dream (there were bugs, huge bugs, huge flying goo-bugs that roared and stamped, blasting her with horribly fetid gusts that knocked her back and--) before promptly snapping out of it and wordlessly right into her armor. There was an audible click of her armored gloves against the lip of the fountain as she anchored herself.

There were no bugs.

There were no bugs here.

Just Mister Barlow and his music and that was okay. Kala's lips thinned and she pulled herself off the edge of the fountain to sit a little closer and a little safer. Just a little bit. And she wasn't going to sleep anymore, not if there were goo-bugs waiting for her.

"No one sang," she murmured in a sleepy voice. Kala didn't realize that she'd spoke aloud until she was already talking. "In my village, no one sang and the only time I ever heard music was when I went to Calis in the summer of my fifteen year. Singing was forbidden because. Because it could bring goo-bugs and other...other things."

[billy-blin.livejournal.com]

It was a few minutes before Will said anything... A world without music was.. tragic, to say the least. "It sounds as if your world was truly a mess. I can't imagine life without song. Human song, I mean. Killing nature's songs is an impossible task. But song, any song... it's one of purest expressions of feelings. Joy, sadness, hope, fear, music lets them all play out."

[magetrouble.livejournal.com]

"I helped make it better," Kala said, tilting her head back to rest on the edge of the fountain. "At least it might have been better had home not been destroyed. A person's voice carried just at the right pitch and tone, at least in my province. Calis was two provinces over. They never had bugs. I mean, sure, there were other troubles and things that maybe tried to eat you, but it wasn't anything like goo-bugs and the creeping sickness."

She was silent for a moment, her fingers cool against Rising Phoenix's gems.

"Music's...beautiful," she said softly. "And somehow it makes things better."

[billy-blin.livejournal.com]

"I've never found a problem that music couldn't improve. I remember one mission I found myself on in the Amazon, we all got separated... used the music to find each other again. 'Course, the music also brought some other things to us, but that's not the point." He smiled. "Calis was a lucky place, then. Having to cut the music to stop the bugs... I'd sooner cut off me arms."

[magetrouble.livejournal.com]

"I hadn't been born yet when the goo-bugs came. I think I was about five when I was picking flowers and-- I don't know, maybe I was humming. It was a small bug, fast, too, and my six year old brother, Gessu, managed to kill it with a hunting knife, but. It nearly took his hand. Going to Calis that summer with Farla was like stepping into another world." Kala smiled just a bit, which was rare enough itself, and tucked her knees up against her chest. "I never heard so many people laughing in one place. The taverns weren't quiet, either, and men knew real songs. Songs that weren't at all proper."

She flushed at the memory and shook her head.

"There are no bugs here," she said quietly. "And I'm glad. I'm glad music can help like that."

[billy-blin.livejournal.com]

"Oh, don't be mistaken, I know my fair share of songs that arn't proper. Remind me to tell you about Yarmouth Town sometime." Blin smiled, remembering the first crowd he'd sung that one for. Apparently there'd been a chaplan in the audience... Good times.

"I suppose it's the little things like that, not having bugs here, that may make this adventure worthwhile. Mind, I'd still rather be home with Toun. Poor dog must be going crazy by now, assumin' my world hasn't been destroyed. Then again, present company isn't half-bad, either."

[magetrouble.livejournal.com]

"That's part of life," Kala said, actually laughing. "Learning and doing things most folk think aren't proper at all." She let her head loll a bit, soaking in whatever warmth she could get from the stone at her back. "I guess I figure that there must be something I have to do here if I got myself pulled from my universe. I've met some really interesting people, that's for sure. And I'll agree. The present company isn't half bad at all."

Her voice dropped a little.

"I like animals. They're good company. Honestly, I'd rather be home fixing tea with Gessu or yelling at him to stop trying to get some weird invention of his going. He was always banging something about and he was always so cheerful about it. But that's my brother for you. He was going to fix the world through this or that odd contraption. I hope he does it."

[billy-blin.livejournal.com]

"Sounds like one of my old war buddies. He was always building something... Don't think he ever finished a single project. Then again, he was in an odd boat. His powers messed him up pretty bad." Blin shook his head. "God can be cruel like that sometimes."

The was a pause before he said anything else. It was weird.. whenever he opened his mouth to her, it felt forced. With every other person on the ship he'd talked to, words flowed, he had no problem saying whatever was on his mind (like when he met that poor Claudia girl... poor, poor girl), but with her it was like he was afraid to misstep. He played a reel to buy some time while he tried to think of what he should say, but it didn't help. So he gave up, and went with whatever he was thinking.

"You know, you've mentioned Gessu a few times now. Care to elaborate on him?"

[wolf-that-grins.livejournal.com]

"Ooh cool. Another busker!" Wags said, noticing Blin. The Garou was, emotionally, a flare of humorous emotion tinged with antsyness, with a core of tightly bottled animalistic rage that fought at its confines.

[billy-blin.livejournal.com]

"Aye, it's what I do." There was a pause. "Just about all I do, come to think of it." Blin smiled at what was sure to be a hilarious emotional explosion somewhere down the line.

"William Barlow, Troubadour Extraordinaire. Known far and wide as Blin-Eyed Blin. Pleasure."

[wolf-that-grins.livejournal.com]

A release of the rage bottled up inside of him tends to be the exact opposite of hilarious. When Wags gets angry, things die very quickly and very violently.

"Wags-Tail-A-Lot, better known as just Wags. Busker, Trickster, Scholar, and Werewolf."

[billy-blin.livejournal.com]

Which is hilarious when you aren't one of those things. It's a matter of perspective, really.

"Hmm, redundant and oxymoronic. I like it. So, what do you play, Wags?" Blin smiled at him. It was always nice to meet another man of the craft... few people realized just what kind of network there was of buskers. Almost like the thieves guilds of yore, but they used their strings for garroting less often.