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Sakura frowned but asked her, "Do you know ANYONE that plays bass?" Skaura just hopes the Kylie's answer this time was a yes. Oh please be a yes....Maybe one of her friends!? Sakura thought which a worried eyed face and desperate tone in his voice.

Rivera finished her hot chocolate and wiped her mouth. She was watching Kai, who, in turn, was watching a group of people in the shadows who, in turn, was watching her. She didn't like this silent exchange between their eyes. They gave strange looks at her and Kai's glaring only made it worse. Rivera touched him gently on the shoulder and recalled his attention, shaking her head.

"There are morons in this world still, and I can handle them with my own skill..." She bowed her head slightly in thanks. "There is no need to trouble a warrior like you with my safety."

Kai rolled his eyes. "There is a reason I exist. And that, of course, is to protect you. There are other reasons, but this is my reason, your highness. Forgive me for my lack of courtesy."

Rivera smiled. "You're strange, Kai..." She looked towards the side, a tint of mischief playing along her eyes. "Come with me, I want to show you a trick that I picked up." Standing up, she walked towards the group of musicians. Her whisper was more confident than usual, sharper, yet relaxed.

"I heard you were asking for a bass..." She started, and reached into her belt purse, drawing out a black sketchbook and a pencil. "Might I offer my services?" Looking towards the bass standing in the back corner of the stage, hidden in the shadows, Rivera sketched a crisp, curving line on a clean page. The bass immediately sounded. From below the line, she began to write inscriptions of arcane symbols, causing silence to bend and sound to reverbrate from the silence, sounding the base through its own silence. "If you would rather have it hand picked, I suppose you're out of luck..."

Kai looked at her and smiled. Just like her, to play with silence and make sound. He remembered in the Gyrfalcon Princess' first battle, she had used silence to force the enemy to lose their balance, through the loss of their hearing. It was a good weakener, considering balance and technique made up a good portion of swordplay.

Kai's mouth twitched when Sakura addressed Rivera. It was more the way he addressed her. The informality irked him. Rivera saw, and gave him a little warning glance. He nodded in understanding. These people had no idea that she was the princess of an ancient civilization that died out under the sea, and she wanted it to remain that way. She wanted to be a commoner, perhaps known for somethings, but always things she earned by her own work, not lineage.

Rivera propped up the bass. Kai inspected it with curiosity. He hadn't seen one of these before. Kai plucked a string experimentally. "Your highness, is this a... er... harp?" He asked in a low tone. Rivera shook her head.

"It's called a bass, Kai. It's like a harp, but it sounds very different." She glanced around, hoping no one noticed what he said. "And please... don't call me 'your highness'... I'd rather no one get any ideas..." Taking the bass from him, she slung the strap over her shoulder and set her sketchbook aside. "I want to see if I can do it without the pencil... " Kai nodded and watched.

Rivera reached her mind into the instrument, speaking to it as kin. Her steel entity matched the strings, weedling its secrets out to her bit by bit. Her fingers fell on the strings, unlocking the secrets from their place in the form of sound. Every sound appeared in her mind as an inscription that symbolized the bending of silence to produce the sound. Every inscription matched an action of her fingers. It imprinted itself into her mind, teaching her how to play this instrument in a matter of minutes. By the time she had gone through the chromatic scale once. She could play the bass.

"I'll pick it."

Rivera blinked. She saw the way Sakura looked at them when they were talking. He knew that something was up... Oh well. The crimson decadia would be on them soon anyway... then she would have nothing to hide. She warmed up a bit with a few beat chords that many songs have. Like with the piano, whatever she thinks can come out in music. It was a talent she didn't know the origin of, but it had something to do with her space powers. "Pick a song, Sakura-kun. If I hear it, I can play it..." She whispered. She could feel Kai behind her, still looking curiously at the bass. She felt him glance up at one point at Sakura, looking with a mild hostility or protectiveness. She was a little annoyed, but her feelings never bothered her before. It didn't bother her now.

Rivera's eye lids lowered slightly, both her eyes turned a mystical dim blue-green. She entranced herself into the music and invoked foresight, knowing what will come next within seconds of playing it. She set her fingers down to the bass and began to play out the counter harmony, strumming out beat chords eight times for each measure. She could hear Sakura thinking. He thought very loudly. But then, she didn't bother to answer. First, it would just break her concentration on foresight. Second, she'd rather not have anything to do with his thoughts.

She wasn't much of a musical talent at all. All Rivera really did was take the music and apply it to motion through sound and memory. She played like a machine, without soul or feeling, despite how real the emptiness sounded. She was only taking the styles she remembered and applying them. The only thing she could do with a soul was the piano or singing... She could do neither well, the piano becoming a constant reminder of her affiliation with Chaos and her voice no more than a whispering breath of wind above the surface of the water.