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It seemed to be a quiet night for the Negaverse. Puck leisurely leapt from rooftop to rooftop, keeping up his awareness for Chaos auras, but so far none had been forthcoming. He rarely left his comfort zone for patrolling these days, sticking to the Arts District for the most part, with occasional venturing to the neighborhood around DCU. The Eternal Senshi just didn't feel the need to patrol the entirety of Destiny City, not when there were so many other White Moon and Order types out there now. Once, maybe, when he was still a fresh-faced angry young Senshi, but not any more.

Pausing on the roof of one of the warehouse-lofts common in this part of town, he sent out his feelers again for Chaos signatures. Nothing so far, but he did pick up on a nearby Order aura. He looked around, and while he didn't see anyone right away, he heard what sounded like a flute being played in the distance, the music drifting on the light breeze. Triangulating on the tune being played – was that Careless Whispers? – Puck followed the music until he saw a woman clad in green parked at one of the now-empty tables atop 213 Rosewood Gallery; he recognized the place from the eclectic collection of statues amongst the seating. He couldn't tell what instrument she was playing yet, but it didn't look like a flute.

Cautiously he approached, not wanting to spook her. She was definitely the source of the Order aura, though by her outfit she was probably a Knight of some flavor. He hadn't had much experience with Knights, but he figured this was as good a time to start as any. Peering out from behind a large statue, he watched for a bit, then stepped out of hiding. If she was a Knight, she surely could sense his aura too, so it wasn't like he was sneaking up on her.

"Nice night for a tune, innit?" he said with a friendly smile. "You're very good. What's that you're tootling on?"

"A magic ocarina? Fancy that," Puck grinned. "I never could get the hang of plain old ordinary ocarinas. Not for lack of trying, to me mum's eternal chagrin."

Grabbing a chair, he pulled it close to the table and sat on it backwards, facing the Knight – Pendour, she said her name was. "I'm Puck, of the Woods," he introduced himself with a nod. "I know music, bit of a musician myself." Something about her was ringing bells in his head; not the way she looked, but the ocarina. He recalled a few months back a girl with an ocarina who'd stopped to listen to him busk on his favorite corner next to That Place, near DCU. They'd played for a bit together, then got tea. Pleasant day, that.

"Don't let me interrupt your playing, Pendour. I was quite enjoying it." Even if it was just scales, she was playing them very well. "The sound is very… haunting, like. Ethereal. Very different than a flute, which is what I thought it might be at first."

Puck gave Pendour a warm smile. "There's no crossing no thresholds," he said with a shake of his head. "If you call yourself a musician, if you have the confidence and belief that you are a musician, then you are one. There's no secret handshake or club to join. That's what my mum always tells her students – she's a music teacher. She tells them to believe in themselves and their music. That's all there is to it."

She turned to face him, and another little familiarity bell went off. Had he met her before? He'd for sure remember meeting a pretty Knight if he had – and she was indeed pretty, despite of, or maybe because of, the scars on her face. That girl that played the ocarina with him had scarring on her face too…

"So I play, let's see…" He started counting on his fingers. "Guitar, which is my main instrument, bass, drums, pennywhistle, flute a little, violin a little, aaaaaaaand I think that's it," he laughed. "So far. And no, my mum didn't want me to learn ocarina, I wanted to try it. Didn't go so well, that. And I don't play piano or anything like that – never could wrap me brain around keyboards. I keep playing even despite this… whole thing." Indicating his fuku, he fluffed the feathers on one of his butt-wings for emphasis.

He looked at her again and tilted his head. "I'm sorry, but you seem real bloody familiar to me…"

"Does it show that much?" Puck laughed. "Yeah, I'm from London, from Chelsea in fact. The nice part, where you have little lunches at Marks & Spencer. I've had many a posh nosh there, actually. And yeah, me mum's a music teacher…"

He looked quizzically at Pendour. "You tried pennywhistle from a street musician?" The nagging sense of familiarity nagged at him harder and harder. Trying to put two and two together, he recalled the shy girl with the ocarina whom he'd let try one of his pennywhistles, then took her for tea at That Place. She was sweet and inquisitive, much like Pendour seemed to be. "I'm a busker, same thing really…"

With a growing sense of clarity, he asked, "Would it… would it be okay to like power down in front of you?" Before the words were even out of his mouth, he cast about hard for any Chaos auras – that would be the last thing either of them needed, for a Negaverse agent to stumble on them and learn their mortal identities. "I mean, like, I trust you not to do or say anything to me, yeah? And it's safe now – no Negas about that I could pick up on. I'm not asking you to do it too, okay? I just… got a feeling, you know?"

Puck knew he was taking a big risk, but he had to know. Was Pendour the girl with the ocarina?

Puck's eyes widened, and a huge smile crossed his face. "Sadie! I remember y– hang on a mo."

Closing his eyes, he took a breath and let his Senshi trappings drop away, leaves and all, leaving him sitting there in worn jeans and sneakers and a Dead Kennedys t-shirt. "I'm Rob! I'm the street musician, remember? I certainly remember you – how could I forget you?"

He wanted to jump up and give her a big hug. Rob wasn't much of one to reveal his "secret identity" to just anyone, Order-aligned or not; he'd done it months ago to get Cybele to hospital before she bled out after running into that Negaverse General Sylvite, but those were extenuating circumstances. Still, he was delighted that the Knight he'd met this evening turned out to be someone he knew and liked and felt comfortable enough with to power down in front of her. His gut instincts had been right this time.

"So how've you been? I've missed seeing you around while I play. Glad to know you're still playing your ocarina, that makes me really happy."

"Winter isn't the best time for buskers, that's for sure," Rob grinned. He still couldn't believe it – the ocarina should have been a dead giveaway, but somehow the magic that keeps others from knowing a Senshi's (or Knight's) civilian identity was indeed very strong. "I'd usually go out maybe once a week and do winter-themed and Christmas songs, you know, like you do. Rest of the time I stayed home and wrote and rehearsed. Did I tell you I got my band together? Finally found some guys who get what I'm doing. I'm well chuffed by that."

He frowned, though, when Sadie mentioned the critique she'd received at the hands of a General. "I hope the music is part of your magic, cos otherwise I wouldn't give a flying… well, a flying whatever what a General thinks. I'd just as soon beat them into a grease stain on the pavement, but that's me." Rob couldn't imagine Sadie doing anything like that, Knight Pendour or no.

"Enough of Generals and magic and s**t, though," he finished, waving his hand around as if to disperse the negative thoughts. "Music! That's what I wanna talk about. We could go somewhere else to talk some more – That Place is open 24 hours, that's where we went the last time – or we could just stay here. I don't think anyone's going to bother us, the gallery only opens this place for breakfast."

Rob didn't want to push the magic/music issue with Sadie, even though he agreed – music was magical in whatever form it took, and magic could be made with music. He came to the conclusion from what she said that somehow playing her ocarina was part of her Knight magic, hence the strong connection between magic and music for her. So he let the issue drop.

He was always happy to talk about himself, though, even when he was trying to be a good friend. "Yeah, the Pict-punk band, Torgo," he grinned. "We've been playing out every now and again at some of the rock and punk clubs around town, and we're working on some new material. Well, we I say, it's mostly me, but I'm letting the lads contribute too. We're coming up with some really interesting stuff."

Sadie said she was interested in going to That Place, so Rob stood and scooted the chair back to where it had been. "Um. Yeah, maybe we should have thought about how to get down…" He peered over the edge of the roof. "Well, we could always power up, jump down, and power back down again," he chuckled.