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 Posted: Wed Dec 30, 2009 11:51 pm
"Zac," Kirin repeated. Short name for a short... no, better not go there. Kirin wasn't too happy about his own height, so he wasn't about to go commenting on others'. Well, unless they were giants, in which case they deserved mocking for daring to be so huge. Bastards.
In Kirin's experience, if people asked your name, you replied with what you wanted to be called. Or you tacked on, "but please for the love of god call me 'blah'." And it wasn't as though they were friends or anything. Easier, and likely more polite, to stick with Zac.
"I'm Kirin. No nickname," he said. Well, none that he wouldn't kill people over. "So what school do you go to? I don't recognise you from Meadowview, but it's been a while since I actually attended any classes, so..." Kirin trailed off. Sure, now he sounded like one of those bad girls who ditched to hang out at the mall, but it was better than saying he'd been held as part of a psychotic trap-experiment for several months.
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Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 12:18 am
"Hrm... Hillworth." He said, knowing full well the negative connotations that went with that. "it's actually nice to have room and board." He shrugged.
The bad girl implications actually caused him to shoot her a 'this -is- about Karaoke, right?' look.
God knows he didn't want to have run into the one person with a 'short' fetish. That would just be...creepy. Orrr, perhaps someone had gleaned that events seemed to fall into place -just- so when he was there watching. Unprovable but -bad-. Proof never stopped them when it came right down to it.
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Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 10:36 pm
Kirin nodded. Room and board had appeal, he supposed. Especially if you could come and go, not stuck on campus for months at a time, unable to leave. Maybe it was a family thing, though? The boarding situation hadn't entirely sucked, but Kirin preferred his apartment. His space, where schoolmates couldn't find him, no one infringed on his personal space or messed with his belongings. His, entirely his.
"Single or shared?" he asked. He was honestly expecting single. It was all Kirin had experience with. If BP had stuck him with a roommate, he would have had to kill them. Kirin was not a people person.
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Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 11:00 pm
"Shared, but for the most part we've worked out how to co-habbit. Better him than someone new..." He gave a small shrug.
Never mind that Demy didn't really co-habbit, that required sharing, which by his definition, meant there was some kind of separation.
Trying to keep Demy out of anything, ((like personal space)) was like trying to keep air out when all you had been armed with was a sponge.
The line of questions though was, odd... suspicious given the rather "I'm a bad girl' vibes that being missing from school gave off.
He wasn't totally sure he -wanted- an answer to if she lived alone or not, and decided that it would potentially a) show too much interest in the young lady's sleeping chambers by default, and b) well... really b) was just reinstating the first but with more concern about her -liking- that he was 'interested' or seeming to be.
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Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 11:27 pm
"That sucks," Kirin gave Zac a slightly pitying glance before perking up again. Further conversation about sleeping habits was thankfully avoided. "Ah! We're here!"
He tugged Zac through the glass sliding doors. They entered a wide reception area, all creamy white with a high ceiling and stairs up the second level. A wide screen on the wall rotated through a selection of the music videos for currently popular karaoke tracks. Kirin fished out his wallet and dealt with the details at the front desk, a frequent-user card making an appearance to discount the price.
"You want a drink now?" Kirin called back to Zac, having let go of his wrist once they'd entered. He gestured to a self-serve drink machine nearby. "We can order food and drink from the room, but it can take a while, so if you're thirsty now..."
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Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 11:44 pm
He'd never been in a place like this, his eyes drifted all around trying to take it all in without looking like a fool till she spoke about drinks. "
"Ah, certainly... that's a good idea." He said and wondered if he should offer to pay for the food. He'd cross that bridge as it came up.
At least it didn't seem to be something creepy like one of those 'love hotels' they mentioned in movies on occasion.
He couldn't quite keep his eyes from flicking back to the screens with the videos either though, it was just distracting, like trying to pull your eyes away from a mirror even without vanity to intercede, as ones eyes tended to lock in on their own reflection, he at least thought the latter was some kind of residual instinct. Maybe this was as well, focus on movement. Though logically his companion still ranked -logically- on his 'danger' scale with -no- proof that her desires rooted in the karaoke, or if she had other connected motives or reasons for her behavior.
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Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 7:43 pm
"Cool," Kirin said and paid for two drinks upfront as well. Walking over to the machine, he filled a large cup with coke and waited for Zac to grab what he needed.
"We're upstairs. Room... 204," he read off the ticket stub he'd received as proof of purchase. "We've got an hour."
Kirin was getting a little antsy, wasting time down here. It was hard to stand still, knowing what was waiting for him upstairs. Humming under his breath, he bounced on his toes, one foot to the other, while waiting for his companion.
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Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 7:54 pm
He filled his own with Coke as well, no ice and followed as briskly as he could not eager to find a downside to the rather boundless anticipation his compatriot showed. She looked almost ready, in his estimation, to jump out of her skin.
He followed her into the room and glanced around.
"mm... You can go first? You look more ready." He said glancing back at her. He didn't exactly want to admit he hadn't the first clue about Karaoke, it was just... singing wasn't it? But there were machines and... yeah. He had no idea.
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Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 8:07 pm
"Hah, sure!" Kirin didn't need to be asked twice to go first. He was always up for karaoke. or any kind of singing, really. He picked up the two mikes in the table in the middle of the room and tossed one to Zac. He kept one mike for himself, and also the remote to enter song codes. Flopping back onto one of the 'couches' that lined three of the four walls, he punched in one of several codes he knew by heart.
"You'll want to flip through the book," he indicated the heavy phonebook-like tome on the table. Songs could be searched alphabetically by title or by artist. The codes were then entered into the special remote that Kirin placed back on the table, storing up the songs in order.
The opening strains of 'It's My Life' began pounding through the room, and Kirin left Zac to work out the rest on his own, losing himself in an old favourite.
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Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 8:18 pm
He watched her for a while, good voice, not a soprano, he thanked heavens, as they found little favor with him. And more she was a -good- alto, and my what a range.
He almost forgot to find a song but finally picked one to open with he was sure he could do. "Money Honey" by State of Shock.... and... "The Stranger" by Billy Joel.
An odd combination perhaps but they were the first he felt comfortable remembering the starts and stops for solidly.
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Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 10:58 pm
Kirin's song finished, fading into the first of Zac's choices. His eyebrows shot up as Zac began singing. Not only did he have decent musical taste (none of that rapping crap or the too-obvious current top ten stuff), but, god, his voice. Kirin was in shock. Zac had a beautiful tenor - nice control, good pitch, and a lovely natural tone.
Kirin wanted to thwack Zac for hiding such a talent when Kirin had asked. Luckily, Kirin got too caught up in listening, and then in hunting down his next sing choices. Hah, there were going to be several duets in Zac's future...!
Punching in a Celine ballad, Kirin followed with some Nightwish to warm them up, and then 'Almost Here' by that guy from Westlife and the Australian girl he'd left his wife for. Crazy people, lovely song. And a good test for Zac to see if he could work with another singer, or hold his own in a duet.
The next hour was going to fly by...
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Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 11:06 pm
Before the hour was up, even he couldn't argue that he was enjoying himself. The Duets were both challenging and, entertaining. He found himself trying to 'meet' her just at the end of notes, to carry through the same tones based on silly things like facial expression and the like. A test of 'reading' her as much as it was of his own vocal skill.
Shame he didn't consider himself to be proficient.
---
It was, he decided at the end, over much too fast, he wanted it to go on longer but he was tight on funds. And it was ridiculous to admit that he'd enjoyed not only singing but another's company whom he barely knew at all outside of the desire to sing and that she played Chess.
"...That was, more entertaining than I expected." he admitted at the end. the closest he would ever be to admitting directly that he had never done Karaoke before.
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Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 11:24 pm
Kirin was reluctant to leave, but he'd been out all day and his grandfather was making a habit of phoning every night to check Kirin had eaten and wasn't sick. It was incredibly annoying, but Kirin figured he probably owed the old man this for not pushing Kirin on anything else. It could have been worse - he could have forced Kirin to move back into Kaine's house, under watch 24/7.
He perked up to hear Zac had enjoyed himself. "Well, maybe we'll do it again sometime. It's always better with a talented partner." Kirin didn't really care who came to karaoke with him, as long as they joined in and weren't tone deaf. But someone like Zac could spoil Kirin, given enough time. Zac's voice was enthralling and it had been a while since someone trying to match Kirin's enthusiasm had the talent to match.
He wondered if he should offer to exchange mobile numbers, or if that was promising other social interactions that Kirin had no desire for...
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Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2010 8:21 am
He -almost- made a quick social quip about letting her know if he ever -found- a talented partner for her but decided to just let it roll as a compliment, it was one right?
"I'd enjoy that." He admitted. He fished in his pockets and finally pulled out a peice of paper and scratched down a number with it, folded it and handed it over.
"You 'owe' me a chess game anyhow, If this is not coming across as 'excessively social' that is." he added with a small crinkle of his nose at the words 'excessively social'
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Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2010 4:37 pm
Kirin blinked. "Ah, yes, I do." He took the number, though he studied it like it was a strange new life form. Kirin was... being given numbers? That was new.
"Well," Kirin paused on the sidewalk as they exited the karaoke place. "I suppose I'll be seeing you, then. Since I owe you a chess game and all."
Rapidly sifting through his flowcharts, Kirin was trying to find a goodbye scenario that wasn't about making sure the person wouldn't come looking for Kirin again. He wasn't finding one.
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