Sun, Surf, and Demons (insaney)
OoC: The first part of this intro is a little old, but I think I told you a few things needed to happen before she went job-hunting. This'll tie in with her new bio, whenever it is that I get that posted... (Some things here may not make sense unless you've been keeping up with the family part of Cadenza's storyline.)
Also, excuse the general disjointed-ness of this whole thing. <____< I'm sure this is all probably confusing, so feel free to ask any questions.
IC:
Some tunes have a way of becoming the theme song of a day; a background song on repeat in your mind. Depending on how that day goes, you might not want to ever hear it again. But some songs just stick in your head, like a memory...
...It was the first song she ever taught me on guitar. It had no lyrics, but that was half the charm. She'd teach me songs that came with words later. First, she began teaching me a few notes. Then, a few chords. It turned out that they were all building up to this song. She'd heard it once, back in her homeland of Castile, and fell in love with it. None of my other sisters had ever managed to master it, so of course, in the way of younger siblings everywhere, I was hell-bent on learning. It was my first time playing with the fire that is flamenco.
Now, all that comes to mind when I play that song is: meu mãe es muerta, meu mãe es muerta...
I was drunk that day when Sonya died. Arietta shouted something at me I don't even remember before slapping me and kicking me out of the hospital room. Our pai took me by the hand then, and led me, stumbling and incoherent, to the chapel on Trajeto do Pinguim Sábio Street. The whole way, while he was trying to get through to me, I was just wondering why the street's name had the word "penguin" in it.
I hummed the song the whole time while Pai prayed. He asked me to say something to the Spirit of Life for him, since he wasn't a gypsy but knew it would have been important to Sonya, and I think I rambled on about how the Spirit of Light was a bastard. My cheek still stung from Ari's slap. Pai looked at me with a sort of sympathetic frown and helped me back to the door of the Dome. As a sort of leftover fatherly instinct from all the years he'd missed, he took the keys to my Lamborghini from me before he let me go.
The door opened up, and I stumbled through...
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She was told it was a pretty interesting story a few days later. She had apparently marched into the Dome, albeit unsteadily, and demanded to see who was in charge. When someone reminded her that the building was in charge of, well, itself, she turned to the nearest wall and drunkenly let loose her list of grievances. Afterwards, she nailed her two weeks' notice to the wallpaper and staggered out.
No one had seen a resignation quite like that in countless years.
Still, none of that--not even the drunk part--fully explained where she was now...
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Cadenza Madrigal woke up with the sun in her face and a pain in her side. There was a back-and-forth sort of motion to the world that told her she was either lying on the deck of a ship, or there was a very pathetic attempt at an earthquake going on. Judging from the smell of sea salt and seagull guano floating about, it was probably the former.
Shielding her eyes from the glare of the sun, she sat up and took stock of herself.
Okay...there appears to be about twenty-something daggers sticking into my armor... that explains the pain in my side. Did the ship run across some pirates and the crewmembers used me as a human shield? The cowardly bastards...
After she finished removing what she sardonically labeled as her disguise of the World's Largest Pincushion, the gypsy went back to assessing her situation. There seemed to be a lot of unexplained aspects to it.
What else...now, all right, I smell of tequila. That's not a complete surprise. But is that what led me here? Why'd I wander onto a boat?
A ticking coming from her pocket interrupted her line of thought. She reached a hand into the inner pocket of her vest, closed her hands over some metallic lump, and pulled it out. Her imagination said her hand would be clasped over a remote-detonator bomb right now--but instead, it was just a pocketwatch. A gold pocketwatch. She turned the object over and over in her hands, watching how the light played off its surface, until an inscription caught her attention:
DE SEUS AMIGOS NA ABÓBADA.
From your friends at the Dome. How nice. They think I can't read English.
Cadenza pocketed the watch.
Cadenza took back out the watch.
Wait a second. Why do I have this? What did I do!? This looks like something that they'd give to people who...
Neurons that had previously shut down to take a nice long soak in alcohol woke up and reported in to work. Connections were built. Memories were roused from the recesses of the mind.
...I finally quit? Seriously now? I finally quit and I wasn't even there mentally to watch it? That would be my luck...but then, why the boat?
Logic said another search of the pockets couldn't hurt. Drunks seemed to like to stash things in their pockets--like other people's cash. Anyway, it couldn't provide her with any fewer answers...
The rest of her vest pockets were empty. A loose button, but nothing of interest. Her shorts' pockets produced a few zecca coins, and...and?
A green notecard? With a name? Where in bloody hell did this come from?
Cadenza wiped her sleepy eyes and and tried to focus them on reading the paper. All they wanted to do was close and go back to rest. Grumbling, she rooted around in her duffel bag for the amulet Johnny's pet had given her--the amulet that eliminated the need for sleep, among other things--and slipped it over her head. A blink of the eyes was all the time it took for the fuzziness in her vision to fade away. Glancing back at the card, she read:
"Well, it's a bit hard to believe that you're leaving us... sad a day as this is, I have a friend that I once brought here that I think you should meet. I'm sure he could use help with his job, and I'm sure that you might want a new job. His name is Rain Seraph. I hope you find him."
..the stub of a cruise ship ticket was stuck to the other side. The person who'd given her this card didn't need to have signed it for her to know who it was from--she could practically picture the stupid smile he'd probably been wearing when he gave her this if she thought about it right now...
...Broccoli Head. That idiot. He knew I'd need a job? What makes him think I'd want to work with this Rain guy? I've had so many students that it's hard to keep track, but I know I recognize that name...
Picking herself up, Cadenza put away the card again and started staggering off to the cabin she assumed she had on this ship as she perused her rattled memory...
OoC: Much thanks to Z for writing up that note from Zorlo for me on such short notice. It's greatly appreciated. <3
And just to clarify: the woman alluded to ("Sonya") that dies in the beginning is Cadenza's mother. She has been suffering from lung cancer for several years. "Arietta" is one of Cadenza's sisters.