Peaking
Hola amigos…
Sudah memasuki minggu ke-2 bulan September WOW… 2023 ini cepet banget gaksih, apa perasaan w aja…
Ni hari Senin awalnya mau wfh aja karena semaleman diare kebangun 2x jam 2 pagi dan 4 pagi padahal baru tidur jam 1… Akhirnya juga bangun jam 8.30 karena pengin ke belakang lagi HUHU. Yang jam 2 langsung minum Imodium 2 tablet + tolak angin, terus yang jam 4 minum norit 5 biji + oralit. Ku tuh sebetulnya punya 1 strip neo-entrostop pas kemarin otw ke UK juga sakit perut tapi gatau nyelip di mana itu obat… Yaudahlah abis ini beli lagi aja di Boots… Kemudian jam 9-an Oliv ngajak lunch bareng karena dia sudah kembali ke Oxford… Ku yang ekstrovert ini tentu saja tidak bisa resist the urge untuk ngobrol dan ketemu orang sehingga ku memutuskan untuk mandi dan berangkat jam 12 teng, setelah sebelumnya sarapan es kopi (di rumah masih panas banget) dan sandwich telor + gimbap beef dibikinin Listi huhu terharu.
Di linacre barusan makan fish dan cabbage + carrot (gaada karbonya samsek baru sadar w), lalu ke office deh sekarang. Ini tuh lagi bingung selain 1 stip obat hilang, gunting kuku juga gatau ada di mana… Padahal ini kuku udah mulai panjang (terutama kaki)… Semoga ada di pouch makeup deh ya, nanti sampai rumah cek lagi.
Kemarin weekend lumayan lah ya istirahatnya… Walaupun ku sebetulnya belum merasakan efek relaxing dari rumah yang sekarang seperti rumah Headington sih… Apa karena panas banget ya? Di rumah headington tuh buka gorden langsung view halaman belakang pohon-pohon dan emang under shade banget sih, window kamar tuh, ngadepnya ke utara jadi gapernah dapet direct sunlight, dan apa karena di ground floor juga ya, beneran ADEMMM banget, to the level it gets REALLY cold sih kalau lagi winter, tapi ya gapapa juga, I prefer cold tinggal layering aja yang banyak daripada kepanasan gabisa di-apa-apa-in.
Sabtu ke rumah Bu Yani PANAS-PANASAN HUHU. Untungnya dari rumah cuma sekali sih naik X1 dari stasiun… TAPI jalan ke stasiunnya yang HELLISH banget. I eventually decided to pake payung aja deh tu jalan… bebas deh orang mau nge-judge apa gimana gua mah ga peduli ye, yang penting ni sunlight ga directly menyerang my skin… Terus di rumah Bu Yani banyak makan enak (walaupun pedas sekali, which might’ve been contributing to my diarrhea now). Ada es teler juga!!! Sangat senang. Kayanya di rumah bisa deh ini bikin es buah/es teler kalau masih panas juga ke depan… Kemarin habis dikasih kalengan buah-buahan sama Wian… Tapi barusan cek weather forecast harusnya ke depan udah mulai masuk weather autumn sih (HAMDALAH). Yaudah itu buah buat buka puasa aja kali ya tahun depan… Semoga belum expired deh.
Dari rumah Bu Yani, Nadia ikut pulang karena mau nginep di rumah. Malemnya ya curhat-curhat relationship aja biasa, dilanjut nonton Jeongwaja dan Workman sangat lucu ternyata nonton video absurd youtube tu memang lebih enak kalo ramean ya, kalo sendirian ada aja yang lucu tapi missed. Lalu tidur. Kepanasan juga sih ini beberapa kali kebangun saking keringetannya. Paginya Nadia ada meeting terus I decided to look at pics from SKZ albums I bought from Nadia (karena udah lewat juga sih fasenya dia). Sekarang juga lagi mikir gimana caranya naroh ni poster-poster without ruining the wall…
[Dari sini udah mulai teks yang ditulis besoknya aka 12/09/2023 yaitu ulang tahunnya Kim Namjoon, karena kemarin udah keburu harus cabs ketemu sama teman dari London]
Barusan seharian ini literally belom buka kerjaan wkwk malah ngurusin akun abal geologi gitu lagi HUHU. Semua cerita lengkapnya ada di akun X aku ya ges.
Duh ni post tuh awalnya dikasih judul “peaking” karena mau bahas periode di mana orang-orang peaking bisa beda-beda: ada yang di high-school, [PELATNAS!], kuliah S1, kuliah S2, kerja di tempat A, B, dst. Terus pengennya sih bahas panjang lebar gimana ciri-cirinya orang-orang yang peaking di past ini dan mau bilang kalo kasian ya mereka... tapi sekarang otak udah dipenuhi hal-hal lain huhu (saking banyaknya yang terjadi pada hidupku dalam 24 jam terakhir). Intinya tapi doaku untuk semua orang semoga kalian selalu peaking in the present! Jadi semoga sekarang kalian lagi merasa peaking: “I’m at my best in my life!” Terus besok datang dan kalian peaking lagi. Jadi grafiknya akan naik terus! Walaupun ga mungkin sih ya, life kan akan ada ups and downs, tapi minimal general trendnya selau naik! Ku salah satu yang ngerasa Alhamdulillah hidup selalu peaking sampai sekarang: pas high school ya senang sekali, lalu pelatda pelatnas juga senang, masuk ITB senang, ke Paris S2 senang, ke UI kerja senang, sekarang Alhamdulillah di Oxford walaupun depressed kadang-kadang tapi tetap senang juga in general. Senangnya to the level yang bisa bilang “Oh ini kayanya the best period of my life deh, the best achievement I am working on.” Semoga bisa gini terus sampai meninggal. Selalu ada yang bisa dikerjain with me being proud and happy doing it. AAMIIN.
Btw postingan ini ku-akhiri di sini ya karena berikutnya akan bahas hal yang berbeda lagi juga dan pengin dikasih judul beda sendiri. Ciao!
VHL, 18:16 12/09/2023
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Octavia and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day
This is my bard's backstory. It starts about 24 hours before she wakes up on the Mind Flayer ship, and just goes downhill.
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Octavia de’Mire (pronounced ‘deh-meer’, thank you very much) had woken up to a horrible crick in her neck, discovered she’d forgotten to clean her flute the night before, and- And there was a rat chewing a hole through the toe of her boots. Her only pair of good boots, which were also her only pair of shitty boots.
“Get!” She rolled out of bed onto the floor, startling the rat and herself, and let out a curse as pain flared in her neck.
Her foot has been tangled in blankets kicked to the foot of her pallet.
So it’s going to be that kind of morning.
She hauled herself to her feet and stared at herself in the mirror she’d nailed to a barrel. What she saw was fixable, even if the boots weren’t. “You know you’ve got this. Boots won’t matter if you’re good enough. Might even be charming.”
Her reflection told that she really should brush her hair. And that she looked nervous.
Tavi scoffed at herself. Appearances only mattered on the job when Angus got a bee in his bonnet and wanted his bards to match the decor, except she wasn’t going down to the Plunging Neckline today. She needed to put her best foot- or in this case, non-eaten boot, forward.
Angus wouldn’t forgive her for playing hooky. This had to work.
So she dipped her rag into yesterday’s bucket of water and washed off last night’s face paint, gave the rest of herself a quick wash, and combed her hair back as best she could.
Her costume- technically it was a handful of different pieces of costumes she’d gone searching through the brothel’s wardrobes for. It was a ridiculous pair of striped pants, a frilly white shirt that had a suspicious stain, and a patterned vest that covered the stain. And her now-holey boots. And a belt that had probably not originally meant for holding pants up.
It looked like a clown had tried to make interesting clothes out of old jousting flags. Did everything match? No. Did Tavi care? Marginally. She looked like the bards illustrated in the fancy books she’d seen as a child, and that would work. She looked like she’d put everything together with intention.
That was what mattered. Looking intentional. Like she belonged. Like she chose to dress like a grubby bard.
She reached for her flute and grimaced. It should’ve been polished last night, but Angus had her stay late for a well-paying patron who apparently had a hankering for a harpsichord, and she was his only bard who could play it half-decent.
The filigree was dull with fingerprints, yesterday’s lipstick smudged on the mouthpiece. The flute deserved better, and probably knew it.
It would have to do.
Tavi slipped out of her room and crept down the hall to the window over the kitchen roof. A glance out revealed Angus having a heated conversation with the baker’s boy who was delivering the day’s bread next door.
Probably how Angus wanted to pay the bare minimum for the crusts. A coin pinched was a coin saved, he said. It made him insufferable to the suppliers. Few seamstresses even considered taking commissions from him because he’d argue over the price by the stitch and no self-respecting seamstress would let anyone out in something that was held together with hopes and dreams.
The baker’s boy was not having whatever Angus was insisting on.
So she couldn’t sneak out on the roof, but she could instead just go out the front door.
The stairs creaked faintly as she slowly descended. The downstairs hall stank of stale pipe smoke, and leftover cheap perfume. The threadbare rug, once red and now a sad, faded pink, had sawdust piled in the middle of it to absorb someone’s emptied stomach.
Probably a good thing she was leaving early. Angus would have one of his bards (that sounded like there were a lot of bards. But really, it was just the two of them, Tavi and Adolphus) clean up the vomit, because his other employees were too precious for such a demeaning task.
She almost felt bad for Adolpus, but chances were he was the one who’d thrown up, because the kid held his watered-down ale like a sieve.
Tavi made it to the foyer before she was caught.
“What in the hells are you wearing?” The voice’s owner snorted in lazy laughter.
Dammit.
“Good morning to you, too, Bea.” Tavi sketched a small bow to the centerpiece of the Plunging Neckline, currently sprawled on a chaise lounge with a little teacup of coffee and yesterday’s newspaper.
Bea sneered at her name. She’d started trying to only go by her stage name, Begonia. Tavi refused, mostly just to piss her off. Bea had started out as a bard, like Tavi, but she’d decided she’d rather be one of Angus’ ‘flowers’ as he called them. There wasn’t anything wrong with that, in Tavi’s opinion. Her distaste of Bea came entirely from Bea’s snooty attitude that she was now better than the bards.
They all provided pretty services. Tavi’s were pretty on the ears. Bea’s were pretty on the eyes.
“And what are you doing dressed like that?” Bea’s eyebrows migrated down. “No, wait, where are you going? Angus didn’t say you had the day off.”
The accusation hung in the air.
Tavi shifted towards the door. “That’s my business.”
Her eyes shifted to the holey boot. “Sure, what little of it you get. I take it tips haven’t been good?”
“We both know Agnus gives me the worst rooms.”
Angus had been trying for the better part of a decade to get Tavi to quit, because young bards like Adolphus were easy to take advantage of and he could save money by paying them with exposure. Tavi got five gold coins a week, a private room, and she got to keep half her tips.
“Hm. Pity. I’m the best performer, and I get the best tips. I’m sure once you improve they’ll get better.” Bea innocently tucked a fiery curl behind one ear, looking the perfect portrait of friendliness.
Tavi didn’t have time for veiled insults. “Fuck you too, Bea.” She stormed out the front door of the Plunging Neckline, and right into a puddle of what she was praying was water and not horse piss.
Her sock in the holed boot was now wet. Disgusting.
She steeled herself and started towards Bloomridge Park, trying to polish her flute on her sleeve.
It wasn’t doing much.
She veered around a carriage of someone far more important than she was, and ignored the cries of newspaper hawkers going on about some murder.
Murder wasn’t that uncommon. Half the time it was because someone drunk got offended at a drunk someone else or something, and one healer later the dead soul was being brought back. Whoever had been killed this time would either be in a better place, or be brought back thanks to a fair amount of gold.
She slowed on the sidewalk, seeing the line outside the park’s gate. A bright red pavilion was erected in the middle, the line snaking out and spilling down the block. Damn, and it was still early morning. Everyone else here seemed to have the same idea of getting up with the sun. She joined the back of the line, behind a woman in a brilliant blue outfit that shimmered as she moved.
Her own outfit was already drab, but now it just seemed pathetic in comparison.
The woman turned around to take in Tavi. Her expression said everything manners wouldn’t let her. She carried a lyre gilded in gold. It looked expensive, probably worth more than she’d ever see in her lifetime.
Perhaps this wasn’t the best idea. Maybe she should’ve practiced more. Or picked a better outfit.
Tavi returned to trying to shine up her flute on her sleeves.
The line shifted forward.
Her wet sock squished. It was definitely not water that she’d stepped in.
The blue woman plucked at her lyre, humming. Further ahead someone had a massive drum slung over their chest and was louding banging out a beat. A lute, some violins, a pan flute were further up. Everyone was practicing as they slowly moved closer to the pavilion.
Tavi pursed her lips and played a soft lullaby to warm up.
The lyre woman turned around, appraising Tavi again. “Nervous?”
She nodded.
“First time?”
Tavi paused her playing, trying to see what this woman’s angle was. She’d dismissed her earlier, but now was trying to be kind. Time to play stupid. “No, I've been nervous before.”
The eavesdropping violinist behind her burst out into laughter.
The lyre woman raised a manicured eyebrow. “First time auditioning for a lord?”
Tavi sighed and lowered her flute. “It’s that obvious?”
“There’s a certain… quality they’ll be expecting.” Her eyes strayed over Tavi’s wrinkled and overly-frilly shirt and mismatched vest and trousers, and then settled on the flute. “That is a magnificent instrument.” There was an implication in her words.
The flute was gilded in silver, filigree swirls around the holes and mouthpiece. The lower keys had little leaves engraved. It was far nicer than anything Tavi had ever owned. It spoke of quality, and Tavi didn’t look like the sort who had ever owned anything quality.
“It was my mother’s.” Tavi shifted to the side, ignoring the lyre woman as she continued to warm up.
The line moved forward again. And again. The violinist and her took turns saving each other’s spots to go run to a food cart or find a bathroom.
Again the line would move, again, and each time Tavi hated her holey boot and foul sock. There was no time to run back to her tiny room in the Plunging Neckline for a clean sock that would just get dirty again.
The sun climbed higher over the city, and made it abundantly clear that summer was on the way.
She wished she’d brought a hat. Tomorrow she would have a sunburn red enough to make her look like a tiefling.
They were close enough that Tavi could see into the pavilion by the time mid-afternoon hit.
She was thoroughly tired of hearing the violinist behind her play the same three songs over and over. The drummer with the wardrum had vanished into the tent and the cobblestones had stopped vibrating. The woman in front of Tavi looked as though she was miserable in the heat. Tavi felt only mildly warm, because she wasn’t wearing a taffeta confection covered in (probably fake) sapphires.
The park trees offered some shade from the sun.
And Tavi’s shoulder had been an unfortunate victim of the birds living in the trees.
Another shift forward.
Then they were in the tent, and Tavi understood why the lyre woman had put up with the heavy dress.
In the red half-light through the pavilion canvas, it was hard to see where the jewels were attached, so it looked like the night sky fashioned into clothing. The sapphires were stars, twinkling and inviting. The sweat made her skin look dewy-
A servant nodded for the woman to go around the cloth partition.
Tavi took a shaky breath and flexed her tired fingers. She was sunburnt, sweaty, and the bird crap on her shoulder was not going to be easy to wash out. But this was what she’d been practicing months for.
She couldn't recall the last five minutes. Nerves were making her fingers twitchy. She was next and good gods, what was she doing here, she played in the background of the second-worst brothel in the city-
The lyre woman began her audition. And she could play the lyre better than anyone Tavi had ever heard.
She risked a look around the partition and steeled herself.
A thickset, stern-looking woman sat behind a desk, frowning and unimpressed.
Oh, this had been a terrible idea. Tavi was not meant to be ambitious. Hadn’t she learned her lesson last time?
I’m an idiot.
The lyre player finished her song-
How was she done already?
And then it was Tavi’s turn. She took a deep breath and shook off the nerves. She’d played thousands of times.
Tavi strode around the partition and dropped into a bow. “I’m Octav-”
“Just play.” The woman waved a hand laden with triangular silver jewelry.
She stood tall and brought her flute up. Song of Balduran was a simpler song, but it was one of those songs that would worm its way into your head for hours. It was a favorite song of the city; everyone knew it and she’d passed countless taverns with the patrons belting out the words and echoing down alleys. Nop one could go a day in Balder’s Gate and not hear it.
“Thank you, you can stop.”
Tavi pulled away from the flute in the middle of the second verse.
The woman waved her hand. “You can go. Next.”
The world went silent. No, it was the blood rushing through her ears. Her hands had gone numb. She found herself outside of the pavilion, legs carrying her back towards the Plunging Neckline because she couldn’t think of anywhere else to go. Embarrassment and shame and other, harder-to-identify emotions were clawing at the lump in her throat.
They hadn’t wanted her. She hadn’t passed the audition. She’d skipped work for nothing, and Angus-
Oh gods, what had she done? Her heart and stomach seemed to be trading places; her heart sinking and bile rising. She hadn’t done enough, she wasn’t good enough. And she’d played as well as she ever had.
Tavi’s hands were shaking. She couldn’t think. The pain of tears prinkled behind her eyes, making her squint in the early dusk.
Had the woman even been listening-
She’d failed spectacularly. Her head felt hot, hands clammy, her hands wouldn’t stop shaking so she gripped her flute tighter.
“And look who’s back.”
Tavi brought herself back to her surroundings. She’d made it back to the Plunging Neckline and Angus was leaning against the front window, blocking the gawking passerby from catching a look at whoever was meant to be dancing.
Somewhere, Fate was probably laughing at the cruel joke of the situation.
“Angus, I can-”
“Nope, I ain’t gonna hear it. What’s the point of letting you live here if you ain’t even gonna do your job?” He spat at her feet. “Consider yourself now lookin’ for employment. An’ don’t use me as a reference.”
Tavi felt like she’d been hit with a fireball. “What?” she repeated. That couldn’t have been her voice, it was too thin, too high- Oh dear. She was going to cry.
“I’m no longer employin’ you. I’m terminating your job. Canceling your position. However you wanna put it, just don’t come back for nothing.” Angus generously spat at her feet again.
She caught the sight of Bea watching her with a smirk in the window.
Angus waved at her. “Now shoo, you’re blockin the door from cust’mers.”
Tavi opened and shut her mouth. Everything had gone silent because her ears were ringing. Heart pounding. Her skin felt tingly and both too hot and too cold, fingers numb again.
Fired.
A failure.
Shame burned at her throat. Or perhaps it was bile, and she was going to vomit up her heart.
She didn’t have anywhere else to go. Her clothes, her books, the good pillow she’d bought with a month’s worth of wages. “I need my stuff-”
Angus paused in the doorway. “Forfeit for the day’s work. And for takin’ costumes.” He looked over his shoulder at her. “You took advantage of me, so it’s all fair. I coulda called the Fists. Now get or I will call ‘em.”
Tavi took a step back, and another, and another, until she realized she’d made it back to Bloomridge Park, watching the great pavilion be taken down. She entered through a different gate, and stood there, trying to breathe and tell herself that it would be alright.
Except she had nothing to her name, save her flute and the ridiculously stupid over-the-top bard costume.
A tear leaked out. She was going to cry, and she didn’t care. Tavi slipped deeper into the park, to one of the private fountains that would muffle her tears. Dusk was being evicted as night fell. She sunk down in front of the fountain and let out the sobs.
Come on, think!
Her mind lost the battle to her emotional turmoil. She could think about what to do later. A good cry would sort her out emotionally-
Tavi whipped her head around, ponytail flying and crick in her neck protesting, as she listened. She could have sworn she’d heard something over the gurgling fountain.
Hadn’t the newsboy that morning mentioned a murder?
It had probably been a rat in the bushes, if she’d even heard anything. But still, this wasn’t a safe place to be, even if she didn’t have anywhere else to go.
Tavi stood-
And everything went black.
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