A man sat on the streets strumming a guitar. His hair was in dirty blond dredds. His brown eyes focused on his guitar. He plucked at the strings with silver fingernails. He wore a black bomber jacket and jeans with holes in the knees. His shirt shouted AC DC, it also cried for the wash. The tone was familiar to most people. It's very intro was famous. The man closed his eyes, and sang...

"On a dark desert highway
Cool wind in my hair
Warm smell of colitas
Rising up through the air..."

It was the Eagle's "Hotel California". He voice mimiced the actual lead singer's to a tee. He sang with precision without artistic liscense. He didn't seem to want to change the song in any way.

He guitar case waited in front of him hopeful for a coin or two. Most people ignored him and walked on, some people sang along, nobody dropped a single coin.

On the same side of the street, Kathy had just wandered out of a nearby shop. She turned right before realising she should've turned left, and so she turned back and nearly collided with someone in the process. The fact that she was fumbling with her purse wasn't helping. She had come out of the shop without sorting her change, and now she was having to restle with her shopping bags while trying to stuff the change into her purse while trying to walk down the street at the same time.
She didn't notice that music was playing until she was walking past Tympan. The quality of the music made her pause and look up, and she was surprised to see that it was just one guy sitting alone on the street. A sudden idea made Kathy grin. One person's annoying change could be another person's lifesaver. So instead of wrestling with the coins any further, she dropped the money into the guitar case. She then paused a moment longer to listen...

The sound of the coin seemed to awaken the man from a spell. He looked up and grinned. He looked into her eyes and sang the song for her and seemingly for her alone. He finished quickly, not bothering to continue with the guitar solo at the end. He sprang to his feet. "Ey, could 'elp you with some of that love?" He put his guitar down into the case haphazardly, most of his attention was on Kathy.

Kathy, who wasn't used to being sang to, had turned very shy by the time Tympan had finished his song. She beamed at him as he suddenly sprang to his feet, and when he asked her a question she blinked and replied,
"Oh, would you? That would be great! Um, I mean, yes please, just for a little while. I really should learn not to drag all of my stuff with me just for a shopping trip..." she said, indicating to the very tatty but very full backpack hoisted over one shoulder. "I'm quite surprised that I didn't bring my two roosters along with me!" she added with a chuckle, before realising that she was rambling, and so coughed nervously.
"Anyway, yes, if you could just take these two, that would be great..." She carefully separated two bags from the rest of the bunch and held them out. As she did so, it suddenly occured to her that she was offering her shopping to a quite possibly homeless person who would steal things to make a living. She didn't falter though, as she didn't want to appear rude, and for some reason this guy just didn't strike her as being the stealing type...

Tym grinned and took the two bags from Kathy. "Ey, lead on then. It'll take forever to find yer house if ya don't." He hefted the bags a bit, feeling the weight. "What jah got in 'ere anyways? Bricks?" He stretched his leg out and closed the lid to his guitar case. He kicked it casually against the building. He was ready to get moving...

Kathy grinned and replied, "Noo, just some heavy-duty clothing. Mountain gear, to be exact. I travel around quite alot, you see..."
She was about to start walking, but then saw that Tympan seemed to be leaving his guitar behind.
"Um, don't you want to bring that with you? Someone could take it while you're gone..."

Tym looked back. "Oh that ol' thing? Don worry it's not mine. He owes me money anyway. Bleeding thing doesn't work right. Doesn't tune. Someone takes it he'll let me borrow another."

Pause.

Grin.

"Eh, so after you then?"

Kate glanced once more at the disguarded guitar, then nodded and started walking.
"It's funny, when you were playing, I thought it sounded perfect." She shrugged. "Maybe I don't have a very good ear for music..."

"Don worry, no one's perfect." He followed in step to Kate's pace. He didn't walk though, Tym never walks, he swaggers. He's almost drunk-like, legs weaving in a strange pattern, head moving to an odd beat. The bags swayed with him, making that wonderful plastic sound when they hit against his legs. "Yer house ain't far from here isn't it? Or are we in fer a good hike mate?"

Kate giggled cheerily at Tym's swaggering, confident manner, subconciously pleased to have found another British person like herself. When he asked her a question, she replied,
"Not too bad; about ten to fifteen minutes away." She glanced up at Tympan. "Are you really sure you don't mind walking with me all the way to my apartment?"

What a stupid question. "For a pretty lady like you I'd follow you to the gates of hell and beyond." 'Beyond' was accented with a wave of a bag.

"But enough about me, love. Let's talk 'bout you. Wha kindof music did you like?"

Despite herself, Kathy blushed deeply at Tym's answer, though she was pretty sure that he must say that to all the ladies...
She was secretly releaved when Tympan changed the subject.
"Music? Oh, I like most things, really. Anything with a good beat. A bit of rock, a bit of dance...I'm not picky. What about you?"

Pause. Tym seemed to miss a step. The answer was quickly forthcoming, he just had to think about it. It took a bit. "Everything I suppose. Ey, but that gets confusing at times. But after all I can't choose, it's not right. With all the brawling and all that. Terrible outcome that. You wouldn't want to see it. But I digress, to some degree... Ey... What where we talking about?" Tym's face contorted in confusion and then lit up again. "Oh, right! Music! Did you know I can play? Fancy that eh?"

Kathy looked at Tympan and raised an eyebrow, unable to surpress a laugh.
"Yes, I did notice that." she replied with a grin. Though Tym's strange answer didn't make much sense to her, she had a feeling that some of the things he said came out unintentionally. But she didn't want to pry, despite her growing curiousity, so she decided to change the subject once again,
"Um, please don't think I'm being rude, but are you actually, er, without a place to live? Or do you just play music for some extra money?"

Now it was Tym's turn to laugh. "Of course I 'ave a place to live. I live everywhere." He added a grand wave of both bags, he was about to spin but thought better of it. "I play because... Well I guess you could say music's has a special place in my soul. Ey, like everyone else. Nobody can help liking a little beat an' swing or a little rock an' roll. S'not my fault some people throw coins at me... Not that I'm complaining at all." He added a wink to the end of that sentence.

Kathy grinned at Tym. "Oh well in that case I'll have my coins back, please." she said jokingly, before shaking her head and chuckling lightly.
"I'm kinda the same. I never stay in one place for very long, I don't really have a permanent home..." She would have continued, only that she was currently wondering whether Tympan was an Uninitiate or not. He didn't look much like an Innitiate, but then who could tell these days...

"Oh well then." He shifted one bag to his other hand and dug into his pockets. He extracted the exact amount of change she gave him. (The original change is still in the guitar case. How the hell did he know how much she gave him when he was looking down at his guitar the whole time? But I digress...) "Eh, 'ere ya go. Couldn't take money from a lovely lady anyway."

"Right then you were saying? No, wait I remember. Nomad stuff eh? Things pretty stable now? Or am I to climb mountains before I can see your pretty face again?" (And he would, mark my words)

Kathy blinked in surprise as she found Tym suddenly trying to give the change back.
"Oh! I was only joking!" She smiled and shook her head, refusing to take the coins back. "You didn't take them from me, I gave them to you. A present in return for the song, if you like."
She was silent for a moment, before Tympan's second comment sunk in. She glanced up at him and grinned shyly. "Hah, no, I hope to stay here for at least a little while. I hear there are lots of..." She checked her words. "...interesting things to see around here."

Tympan pocketed the money quickly, as if she would change her mind. "That true. Interesting things. You know that if you were blind, 'ered be interesting things to 'ear. Not that I want ta get all metaphoric on ya or nothing. But 'eres stuff that people are more willing ta 'ear then see, if ya catch my drift and all that. 'ey see it ta believe it 'en they don believe there eyes. But if they hear it, they say maybe, or they jus take another swing at the bottle if you know what I'm saying."

Kathy laughed lightly. "I think so, yes. I like to think that I'm an open-minded person. I'm a firm believer that there is much more to life than just what you can see..."
She then looked suddenly surprised, having just remembered something.
"Wow, I've just realised, I haven't even told you my name! Well, um, I'm Kathy, pleased to meet you." She announced with a grin and a formal nod.

"Oh, I knew 'at already..." He wave his free hand, silver glinting in the mid-day sun. "But I guess you'd be wantin ta know mine, eh? It's Tim, a pleasure to meet ya Kathy." He bowed slightly to acknowledge the other person.

Kathy nodded and gave a slightly confused smile. "You knew it already? Oh, maybe I'd already told you. Sorry, I can be forgetful sometimes..."

(OOC: Blah, rubbish post. Running out of things to say! Maybe it's about time we took this to the Apartment area?)

((Apartments sounds good. You make first post?))

"Nope ya didn't tell me." He waved a finger in the air as if making an intelligent point. "I was sitting 'ere an' I was a thinking. 'Well 'ere's goes good ol' Kathy Smith, I wonder if she'd be a liken the Eagles...' An' then you threw some coins. Much appreciatin' that." He gave Kathy a wink. "Ey, course kinda disappointed ya didn't know my name. Oh well, guess I 'aven't been out much lately..."

(OOC: Ack, sorry for the delay. The new topic is ready!)