quietmounds | (no subject)

(no subject)

WHAT in person
WHERE ALL OVER
WHEN day 7, evening -> night
NOTES it's just a mingle really

[ Maybe you're getting off work now, or maybe you're just heading there. Or maybe you don't even have a job? Either way, it's a nice quiet evening to be outside in Quiet Mounds. Out on the streets, there's no sound at all. No birds or crickets, no murmur of crowds, no traffic. Isn't it peaceful? ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ so as a Bard, Medren is probably at least a little familiar with the expression of someone who has just recognized what he's playing and is hurriedly steeling themselves for some fully welcomed emotional devastation

which means when Kaiko spots him, brightens, and then freezes as the tune registers he's probably got at least an inkling of what happened there. ]

[noticing that, yes, and immediately pulling back a little on some of the empathic projection he's been doing, so that she doesn't also have that to deal with... but he doesn't stop playing until he reaches the end of the song]

[ thanks bro she has more than enough feelings for this one on her own

she wanders over and quietly plops herself down nearby as he plays, wide-eyed and appreciative and absolutely starting to leak a little around the middle of the chorus— though she doesn't let herself get audible about it until he's done, at which point she blows out a huge shaky breath and goes to scrub at her face. wobbly, but almost laughing: ]

Your timing— oh, hell, I'm sorry.

[setting the gittern aside and scootching over so he can put an arm around her]

Hey, hey. Nothing to be sorry about.

...struck a chord, did it...?

[when in doubt, puns]

[ this is why we're friends. does actually laugh, relaxing back against him after a very brief deer-in-headlights impression ]

Emphatically and on beat. The entire song is pretty... mm, like that, but it's also always reminded me of someone I thought I wouldn't get to see again.

...So of course he showed up here the day before yesterday.

...oh, wow. I know how that feels. It is, ah, someone you're glad to see again, isn't it?

[ giving him a mildly concerned look, but nodding ]

He was... at the very least, he was my best and only friend before I died. ...We would have been dating if I hadn't been oblivious, and he hadn't... died.

[ wiping at her face again ]

So it's a good thing, I'm just. Emotional.

I bet. That's a lot to deal with.

[gentle shoulder squeeze]

[ squints her eyes shut, one part satisfied cat to one part one part overwhelmed ]

...mm.

You know, I'd been planning to message you and ask if you would mind me lying around and putting myself back together in your general vicinity, but I suppose it's a little late for that.

I don't mind in the least. Want to stay out here, or go back to my place?

Out here is fine... It's a nice night. Besides, that way you might still get nibbles.

[ with a head tilt in the direction of his gittern case ]

Shall I start up again? Any requests?

Requests— oh, goodness, I don't even know what you would know outside of what I threw at you earlier...

[ ...trailing off, going faintly shifty-eyed ]

...though. Since you knew "The Cave"... do you know "Thistle and Weeds," maybe...?

I do, actually! And "Hopeless Wanderer," and that's the sum total of my Mumford and Sons repertoire thus far.

[ VIBRATES ]

Medren, your sum total happens to be my three favorites.

Oh, well—

[launches right into Thistle and Weeds]

[ this high quality medren!! I'M GOING TO DUMP THE ENTIRE CONTENTS OF MY WALLET INTO YOUR GITTERN CASE

throwing herself excitedly onto her front to listen, eyes glittering ]

[there is a lot of determination going into this song, the way he sings it]

But plant your hope with good seeds
Don't cover yourself with thistle and weeds
Rain down, rain down on me

[ it's definitely a different take on it than the one she's used to reading into it. ...not that that doesn't involve determination, of a sort, but her particular brand of that tends to be as much spiteful refusal to give up as it is anything else. she likes it, though; even if it weren't Medren singing it for her, it nicely balances out a bit of the dark, bittersweet echo the song usually kicks up for her.

...she ends up humming the lower harmony for the next bit under her breath with him, trying to be careful not to throw him off ]

[he doesn't seem thrown off at all, winking at her encouragingly and taking it a little softer so that they can harmonize more fluidly]

[ —flushes and wrinkles up her nose, but fine, if you're going to be like that. pushing herself back up so she can actually breathe and shifting over to words ]

—shoots to kill;
Rain down, rain down on me.

[ she's not amazing or anything—particularly in contrast to Medren—but she's in tune and she's absolutely got the right kind of voice for this song, low and slightly husky ]

[all the really bittersweet parts are coming out just... wistful, the way he's playing it, and the defiant bits ring with total confidence]

[ doing her best to let him "steer," but even though she's visibly enjoying herself she can't quite get all the teeth out of her voice. the final verse she joins him more quietly on, though, even though there's no harmony there; plaintive and gentle, somewhere between a plea and a lullaby.

she manages to wait two beats after the final chord dies before grinning helplessly ]

—that was fun? Thank you—

Thank you! We'll have to do that more often.

[ aaaaa just sort of gripping her own cheeks ]

I didn't know if joining in would be rude, or— mm, I suppose you can twist my arm.