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 Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2022 3:47 pm
Pendour was sitting cross-legged on the sidewalk of the park, her cape and her mermaid skirt both wrapped around her, because there was still a hint of a bite in the spring breeze. A few feet away from her was a park bench that she could have been sitting on, but then she wouldn't have been nearly as close to the garden bed, with the soil smells and the tulips that were finally unfurling their sweet petals. Pendour had spent a few moments talking to the plants, making sure they knew how strong and lovely they were for surviving the winter, but after that, she had pulled a piece of crumpled sheet music out of subspace and propped it up against one of the small trees in the garden bed so that she could see. It was Careless Whispers. She'd suggested that Abzu play it to confuse or interrupt the Negaverse, but then she'd thought that she might as well try it herself. He hadn't gotten back to her yet with a proper arrangement for ocarina, but she'd at least been able to find some sheet music on the internet. She pulled out her ocarina and started slowly playing through it.
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Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2022 11:24 am
Zephyr observed the Knight carefully from behind a nearby tree. She had just finished her fitness routine at the human gym, and was on her way home, choosing to cut through a park she liked just in case there was some interesting data for her to pick up on the way home. Some people played instruments there sometimes. The guitar was a common sight. She was not, however, expecting to hear something so familiar. It was the instrument she had heard on the battlefield when Caedus was saved. A discreet glance at her ComTech GPS confirmed it -- it was not being played by an unpowered human. There was a Knight nearby, in the exact direction the sound was coming from. She was playing a different song this time. There was something about seeing her with sheet music, picking through the notes, just like she did with her cello at home. It made the Knight seem more personable, but somehow more intimidating at the same time. Eventually, the human glamour fell, and Fae-Fae steeled herself for the approach, but her feet wouldn't budge from their nesting site beside the tree roots. Why was she suddenly so nervous?
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Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2022 2:47 pm
Pendour practiced for a while. Sometimes, a note came out sounding not quite right, and she would go back and repeat the phrase. Sometimes her hair would fall into her good eye, and she'd lose her place. After a few times of that, she slipped off her pearl hairnet and started braiding her hair back into the style she wore most of the time as a civilian. To reach her long ends, she had to sit up and reach back a little, and it was as she shifted that she saw the person staring at her from the shadows. The Velencyan, she realized. She recognized that uniform. Pendour stared back for a full two seconds before she waved, although that was short lived, because as soon as her arm was out from the cape she remembered that the pockmarked scars she carried were from helping to save Caedus and that meant it might send some message. She tucked her arm back and instead just said, softly, "Hi. You can come over if you want, I don't mind."
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Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2022 3:29 pm
The Vanguardian approached with uncharacteristic shyness, the treads of her boots tenderly touching the ground as if any noise they made might chase the music away. Fae-Fae felt very strange. For a long moment, she just stood there, twisting the knuckles of her fingers against each other in front of her chest. Combined with the ocarina, Pendour's calm presence made her seem almost supernatural. Then her hand slowly, slowly moved to touch her ComTech. She meant to present the usual greetings. The usual recognition, the usual questions. But instead, she said, with a small blush and quivering eyes, "I ʀᴇᴍᴇᴍʙᴇʀ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴍᴜsɪᴄ. Mᴀʏ I ʜᴇᴀʀ ɪᴛ ᴀɢᴀɪɴ?"
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Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2022 4:00 pm
The music? Where- Oh. It had been in the battle, hadn't it? At the end, when it had seemed like everything might explode, when Encke and Oberon had wrenched Caedus's starseed from Lyndin, she'd tried to distract the Commodore and calm down everyone else. She hadn't thought much of it at the time. She hadn't thought that anyone would remember. She'd been wrong, but it was a good kind of wrong, and she smiled softly as she picked up her ocarina from where it was resting next to her paper. "Always," she said. Any time she could calm someone's nerves, of course she would do it. She lifted the ocarina to her mouth, then, and played again, and this tune came easier to her, and the notes were soft and deep and smooth. She let the magic flow out of her, too. cibarium When Pendour plays her ocarina, the negative emotions of those within five feet of her fade and are replaced with a feeling of blissful, almost sedative relaxation. The strong willed can shake the effects with intense concentration, but it serves as an effective distraction. She can channel this magic for one minute.
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Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2022 4:57 pm
And before she knew it, Fae-Fae was sitting cross-legged on the ground across from the bench, listening with openly innocent wonder. It would have been a powerful experience without the flow of magic, to have such a request fulfilled -- as it was a request she could never have made of one of her own people. It was a need that couldn't have been met back home. "Vᴇʟᴇɴᴄʏᴀ ᴅᴏᴇs ɴᴏᴛ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ᴍᴜsɪᴄ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴀʏ Eᴀʀᴛʜ ᴅᴏᴇs," she said. "I ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ᴜɴᴅᴇʀsᴛᴀɴᴅ ᴡʜʏ."The Corporal gasped quietly upon realizing what she had just chosen to say. As the magic faded, her eyes widened, and a deep sadness welled up from her chest and bled into her face. She felt naked, ashamed to admit such a thing to a human she barely knew, to be talking down such a path instead of following her mission. Earthlings had no business knowing such an intimate detail of her homeworld... and yet she was sharing it openly with one, and she couldn't stop a pair of tears from rolling down her face.
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Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2022 5:49 pm
No music? That was a strange, uncomfortable thought. Music wasn't like lifeblood to Pendour, the way it seemed to be for some of the other Neptune knights. The ocarina was something she'd inherited from a bloodline she didn't claim. And yet, she didn't think she wanted to imagine a world without bubbly pop songs playing in the background or shops, or without tense chords at the climaxes of movies, or without the music box lullabies she played in her room when she was drifting to sleep. It was a sad thought, Pendour decided. It wasn't a hopeless one, though. "Well, if you like it, you can bring it back to your world," she said. "You can show it to your people. I think some of them would like it." She'd gotten Caedus into painting easily enough that she thought the others could be swayed to music. The Velencyans were probably all itching for creativity, if their world had so little. She shifted a little, laying her ocarina to the side again now that her magic was done. "My name's Pendour, by the way," she added, "Um, hi."
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Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2022 1:47 pm
The graphite-haired Velencian stood up again, attempting a formal expression. "I ᴀᴍ Cᴏʀᴘᴏʀᴀʟ Fᴀᴇ-Fᴀᴇ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ Vᴀɴɢᴜᴀʀᴅ. Iᴛ ɪs ᴀ ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴜʀᴇ ᴛᴏ sᴇᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ᴀɢᴀɪɴ."She was grateful that this Knight was one of the friendly ones. All the same, her heart was racing. The air twisted and turned around her, this way and that, as if she were at the center of a slow and gentle whirlwind. The scent of the grass beneath her feet took on a comforting and familiar note she could not place. Pendour continued to be the most fascinating human Fae-Fae had ever seen. She couldn't think of the right thing to say, and more words came anyway. "Mᴀɴʏ Vᴇʟᴇɴᴄɪᴀɴs ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ ғɪɴᴅ ᴍᴜsɪᴄ ᴏғғᴇɴsɪᴠᴇ. Tʜᴇʏ ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ sᴀʏ ɪᴛ ᴄᴏɴᴛʀᴀᴅɪᴄᴛs ᴛʜᴇ ᴠᴀʟᴜᴇs ᴛʜᴀᴛ ʜᴇʟᴘ ᴜs sᴜʀᴠɪᴠᴇ." Her browline drew a knot of frustration above her eyes. "Oʀ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ɪᴛ's ᴀ ᴡᴀsᴛᴇ ᴏғ ʀᴇsᴏᴜʀᴄᴇs. I ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ᴋɴᴏᴡ ʜᴏᴡ ᴛᴏ ᴄᴏɴᴠɪɴᴄᴇ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ᴛʜᴇʏ ᴀʀᴇ ᴡʀᴏɴɢ."Because she couldn't -- she couldn't even explain what it was, in Velencian words. She couldn't even explain it to herself. She just knew that it was deeply important, somehow. That it should be a part of life on Velencya. "I ʜᴀᴠᴇ ʙᴇᴇɴ sᴛᴜᴅʏɪɴɢ, ᴀɴᴅ ᴘʀᴀᴄᴛɪᴄɪɴɢ, ʙᴜᴛ I sᴛɪʟʟ ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ᴜɴᴅᴇʀsᴛᴀɴᴅ."
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Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2022 3:48 pm
It wasn't like Pendour had spoken to many of the Velencians one on one, except for Caedus and now Fae-Fae. She couldn't say what most of the Velencyans would think. She could tell, by the choices they'd made about Caedus, that they tended towards utilitarian ethics, and strict utilitarianism did have a tendency to squelch the arts. She knew that Lyndin hadn't liked her music on the battlefield. She didn't think he'd like Careless Whispers much, either. She wondered how if that alone was enough to make all the others hate music, too. Pendour was quiet for a long moment as she pondered all this, probably longer than was polite. When she spoke, what she said was, "Can I show you something? Um, my Wonder, I mean." She nodded towards the stars. "Music was very important on Neptune. There's marks of how it shaped their lives up there, even now. I don't know enough to say if you'll find something there that can help convince your people, but it could answer some of your questions, maybe."
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Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2022 5:04 pm
Fae-Fae leaned forward with deep interest not only at Pendour's invitation, but the explanation that came along with it. She had assumed that music was something unique to humanity, to Earth... but now the Knight had revealed that it was once found elsewhere among the stars as well. That implied this strange phenomenon was, perhaps, even more important than she thought. "Yᴇs," she said, without hesitation. "Pʟᴇᴀsᴇ. I ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ ʙᴇ ʜᴏɴᴏʀᴇᴅ."It was a spontaneous invitation to a faraway world, but spontaneity never scared her. This was an offer she simply could not refuse.
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Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2022 5:27 pm
Gently, so as not to startle, Pendour reached out to lay her fingers butterfly-light onto Fae-Fae's shoulder. "I pledge my life and loyalty to Pendour," she was already saying, "And to Neptune. I humbly request your aid, so that in turn I may give you mine." Then, in a brief shimmer like sunlight on water, the two of them were gone.
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