Excellent Birds
Piper was tidying up the workshop after Doctor Alchemy's visit.
That had been pleasant. It'd been a while since he'd worked on a stringed instrument and repairing was always a different matter from building. Building from scratch, he could make it right the first time; repairing an existing instrument brought challenges and problem-solving, to make the instrument sound its best without completely rebuilding it. Not that "best" was particularly distinctive, for a medium-quality instrument, but it had sentimental value for the man and Piper certainly understood about that.
The man had loved it. The music, the instrument and the memories that stirred when he played. Somebody who had an average amount of talent, but made up for it with love... Despite the number of musicians out there, Piper didn't see that as often as he would hope. And to find it among the Rogues....
They even had similar costumes. Now that was kind of scary. Either that or Gambi was running out of ideas. They had the Temperature Twins already, maybe they should have the Spooky-Hood Boys as well? ...eeexcept that he'd given that up, especially after the last couple of Rogue jobs. Deaths? - Yeahhhhhhh no.
Should call Digger, find out if that Dorian Chauntel guy really is the same one that he warned me about. Find out if I'm safe to play again. He felt like a little kid, 'but I wanna playyyyyyy!' - heh, but it was frustrating to him. He felt stifled.
But if he hadn't, he would have played for James. James, who'd turned out to be in the pay of that same Dorian Chauntel. Trying to get Piper to sing....
Narrow escape there.
He wished he could talk to James - JJ, Trickster, the other James.. the real James - about it. Hell, he really wished that he could curl up in the other man's arms and rest his head on his shoulder but he'd learned his lesson. He wasn't risking that again. He treasured James's friendship too much to risk that again. But James had come back to follow up on his apology and they'd talked a bit but they'd talked around it and.... well, maybe friends was all they'd ever be.
He remembered the USB stick he'd found in the workshop and popped it into his computer, noting it contained a lot of image and movie files. Probably not all it contains, knowing James. He started a malware scan on the stick, just in case -- he wouldn't put it past Trickster to dig up one of the few Linux viruses out there.
Nothing. O-kay. So why's Tricks carrying around a geekstick full of porn? And why drop it at my place, 'cause I'm sure that was deliberate. He clicked on one of the files.
....OH.
oh.
Oh!..my.
.... Tricks is a cruel bastard.
That had been pleasant. It'd been a while since he'd worked on a stringed instrument and repairing was always a different matter from building. Building from scratch, he could make it right the first time; repairing an existing instrument brought challenges and problem-solving, to make the instrument sound its best without completely rebuilding it. Not that "best" was particularly distinctive, for a medium-quality instrument, but it had sentimental value for the man and Piper certainly understood about that.
The man had loved it. The music, the instrument and the memories that stirred when he played. Somebody who had an average amount of talent, but made up for it with love... Despite the number of musicians out there, Piper didn't see that as often as he would hope. And to find it among the Rogues....
They even had similar costumes. Now that was kind of scary. Either that or Gambi was running out of ideas. They had the Temperature Twins already, maybe they should have the Spooky-Hood Boys as well? ...eeexcept that he'd given that up, especially after the last couple of Rogue jobs. Deaths? - Yeahhhhhhh no.
Should call Digger, find out if that Dorian Chauntel guy really is the same one that he warned me about. Find out if I'm safe to play again. He felt like a little kid, 'but I wanna playyyyyyy!' - heh, but it was frustrating to him. He felt stifled.
But if he hadn't, he would have played for James. James, who'd turned out to be in the pay of that same Dorian Chauntel. Trying to get Piper to sing....
Narrow escape there.
He wished he could talk to James - JJ, Trickster, the other James.. the real James - about it. Hell, he really wished that he could curl up in the other man's arms and rest his head on his shoulder but he'd learned his lesson. He wasn't risking that again. He treasured James's friendship too much to risk that again. But James had come back to follow up on his apology and they'd talked a bit but they'd talked around it and.... well, maybe friends was all they'd ever be.
He remembered the USB stick he'd found in the workshop and popped it into his computer, noting it contained a lot of image and movie files. Probably not all it contains, knowing James. He started a malware scan on the stick, just in case -- he wouldn't put it past Trickster to dig up one of the few Linux viruses out there.
Nothing. O-kay. So why's Tricks carrying around a geekstick full of porn? And why drop it at my place, 'cause I'm sure that was deliberate. He clicked on one of the files.
....OH.
oh.
Oh!..my.
.... Tricks is a cruel bastard.