{ OPEN } it is a truth universally acknowledged

[inthemoonlight]

who: Cecelia and OPEN!
what: out and about in the inhabited area
when: March 13-18
where: downtown inhabited area
warnings: n/a

{ at work; march 13th-16th }

Cecelia is fortunate she has some talent that is useful in this place. A young lady's skills were meant to attract a husband and little else, and through unconventional means, she had already obtained that once. The occupation of musician isn't really considered proper for a woman of her station, but her "station" doesn't seem to exist here anyway, so what harm is there in it? It provides her with an income and she enjoys doing it. With so many options for food in Riverview Quarantine, the establishments compete to bring in the customers and one way to do that is through live music. While many young ladies learned the pianoforte, Cecelia's talents lie in the harp. She doesn't have her own here, but her employers provide the instruments for her. The harps are large, pedal harps that she tunes manually before each performance. At restaurants, she is usually seated on a small, raised platform so the diners can see her, where she performs slow, relaxing music, but at the cafes, she is tucked away in a corner or near a large window. It is also in the cafes where she can easily converse with the patrons while playing jolly tunes with a faster pace. Whenever her shift is done and she's leaving the restaurants, she then has time to talk.


{ out shopping; march 17th }

It must be a comical sight, this woman in her Regency dress staring with alarm at a silver sequined mini skirt on a mannequin. She's utterly baffled as to why anyone would wear such a thing. Not only is it far too revealing, but it doesn't even look comfortable. Curiously, she reaches out and touches a sequin, frowning at the texture. It feels terrible! She already knows of a tailor who will make her whatever she requests, but her collection of clothes will be slow to grow as she waits for her next paycheck. Personally tailored clothes cost more than this ready made selection, after all. And so she's just looking to see if anything here can work for her. Perhaps a dressing gown and nightdress? Slippers? Oh, is that a perfume bottle? She wanders over to a perfume counter with testers and picks up a bottle, lifting off the cap and turning it over with a confused look that's becoming standard for her. How is she meant to apply this if the cap is hollow, and not tapered glass to apply the perfumed oil to her wrist? Someone please save her before she sprays perfume into her eye.


{ floor 2; during a power outage; march 18th }

While the loss of electricity may be a big deal to some, for a woman who grew up in a time before electricity or gas lighting, Cecelia is perfectly at ease. Candles provide more than enough light for her, and she's delighted that they smell so pleasant! In her time, candles for the elite were made of beeswax and tallow for the lower classes. She recalls heading downstairs to speak with the head of the household maids and the smell of beef in the air. With the random loss of electric light, Cecelia has stocked up on a plethora of scented candles and has them lit throughout the communal floor, though she's tried to use ones that smell nice together. The kitchen has peaches, the living area an ocean breeze, and the bathroom is sweet pea. She sits next to a window, using what natural light is left in the day plus those blue ocean candles on a nearby table to read a book from the library. She has a lot of history to catch up on, but she's happy to set down the book and chat with whomever comes through.

Comments

[inthemoonlight]

"A bard? Goodness, no, I am merely doing this to support myself. In that way, I suppose I am a musician, though it was never my intent to become one." She was luckily set up quite nicely as a widow with no children in a comfortable house that she inherited on her husband's death with money to be made off the land. Not every widow would be so lucky and would have to rush to marry again.

"When I arrived, I was asked what skills I possess, and it was suggested I be a musician for places like this. I perform at other venues as well."

[greatcleavage]

"Well, they sure placed you correctly," Roy said with a grin. His loss that she wasn't in fact an adventurer -- he was starting to miss the occasional bardsong buff -- but as regards her skill itself, no one could complain. Besides, pure harp music sounded... well, homelike, compared to some of the other things he'd heard here. Yikes. "Where else do you perform? And do you use other instruments?"

[inthemoonlight]

"No, no, it is only the harp for me." She then lists off several restaurants and cafes where she performs, as well as when she performs. She doesn't want to make it sound like she's worked to the bone, and explains how some places are only once a week gigs.

"It is refreshing to have a change in location so often."

[greatcleavage]

Roy, nonetheless, whistled admiringly at the list. "When they told you you could make a living working here, you took it to heart, huh?" That bumped her up a further notch in his estimation. Hard work was, after all, a virtue.