[OPEN] showtime

[conheir]

Characters: John Egbert and ANYBODY!
Location: Some tucked-away music store in the Shopping Disctrict
Rating: G/PG
Time: Afternoon/Evening of Thursday, October 28
Description: John discovers a piano, tl;dr version. Care to join him?

Comments

[memorymodus]

Jade had found the music store a week ago, wandering around the Shopping District while waiting for her shift to start. Hanging out in the Watch office had still been fairly intimidating still -- everyone was older than her, taller than her. They'd all seen more experience in battle, and she was just a little girl with a rifle and hardly any field experience

[conheir]

John let out a surprised "Whoa!" when he heard the young female voice behind him because he was pretty sure the only person in the store had been the guy behind the register and the last time he checked, that guy was a GUY and definitely not young and fe-

-- oh it was Jade. That made more sense. He couldn't help the wide smile growing on his face as he greeted, "Hey Jade!" He brought up his legs to sit cross legged on the bench, turning so that he could face her. "Did you come here to shop?"

[memorymodus]

"Hi John! You should have told me that you came here!" She grinned and sat down in a chair next to the piano. Pointing at the bass on the wall, she nodded.

"Yeah, I've been coming here ever since I found out they had an electric bass! I'm trying to save up money for it and my puppy too, so it might take awhile...but I'm going to get it!"

[conheir]

He didn't get a very good look around the store before he had noticed the piano, so he looked surprised when he saw what Jade was pointing at.

"Jade, you should totally get one," he agreed, because just from playing the piano a little here, he was starting to understand what it was like to be unable to play a practiced instrument for a while. But then something belatedly processed in his head, and he blinked with wide eyes.

"Wait, you are going to get a puppy?!" Yup, there is some definite excitement in his tone there.

DID SOMEBODY SAY 'PIANO'?!

[hesgotsoul]

For all intensive purposes, Soul had believed that today was going to be utterly boring. He and Maka were cooped up in Death City again, and the training session had been horrendously uneventful, as expected. Now he was wandering around on his on, on the off-chance that something might happen. If not... well, he wasn't sure WHAT he was going to do.

Then he heard a piano. He'd know that sound anywhere.

Cue Soul wandering over, slinking about, watching the kid (has he seen this guy before? Probably on the network...) play for a bit before finally approaching when he was done with one of his songs.

"You're not bad."

AWWWWWWWWWW YIS

[conheir]

And when he heard the words as he finished the last few notes of his piece, he blinked in surprise at the presence behind him. Somebody who... he didn't know? Wait, no, he looked vaguely familiar. Maybe. Either way, he kind of reminded John of a troll now that he got a look at the guy's teeth, but anyways.

"It's sort of been a while since I've played," he mentioned, fingers coming off of the keys and hands resting by his sides on the bench. John Egbert was a guy who was a bit deaf to praise. "I didn't know they had a piano here!"

♥~

[hesgotsoul]

"She's one of the few, actually."

Now Soul was strolling over. He slipped his hands out of his pockets once he was close enough, and reached out to touch the keys for himself.

"Did you teach yourself how to play, or did you have lessons?" the Weapon asked, as he plunked a few keys.

[conheir]

"My dad taught me," he stated simply, scooching over on the bench so that Soul could access the keys more easily. "Ever since I was little! I guess with how long it has been, I should be like Mozart right now, heh."

John turned to glance at Soul. "Um. Do you play?"

[forthecamera]

This was one of the stores that Rise had come to love. Small and nestled in its own little corner of the world. It was like a safe haven whenever she waned to get lost in her own little world. In a way it almost seemed like something out of a fairy tale. It wasn't particularly large, nor even entirely well lit but just the sense of homeliness it emanated made her happy.

She had been looking through some records and theory books when she heard the first couple notes. She stilled, staying where she was hidden behind some shelves and listened for a while. The more and more this person played the more she felt herself relaxing further. She closed her eyes and began to sway back and forth. She didn't know how long she stayed there just listening. It was the sound of footsteps as another customer came where she was that finally awoke her.

She slipped out from where she was an approached John a little, still not speaking and just listening.

[conheir]

John continued to play, not paying much mind to the occasional person who may have entered or exited the store. Thus, when Rise came closer to the piano, he wasn't attentive enough to notice at all, playing out the last notes to the song he was playing.

Then he figured that he had stayed around and played for long enough, and he shifted the bench back to stand up and turn around and oh hey it was a girl he knew!

"Oh. Hey, um. Rise, right?", he said, with some memories of when he talked to her at the party. "What's up?"

[forthecamera]

"Yea, that's me," she held up some music theory books, "just doing a little bit of shopping! I love this place. It almost feels like something out of a movie, doesn't it? So small and secluded and yet precious."

It was things like these that made her love Death City more and more--and she really felt that at this point she could honestly say that. She had come to adore this city, this world and all of the people she had come to meet.

"That was really, really good! Have you been playing for a long time?"

[conheir]

He looked around the store, pinged by the word 'movie'. And... well, it didn't really look like any movies that he had seen before, but he could see her point? It was definitely nice and quaint and had a nice charm to it.

"My dad taught me since I was really young," John answered, sitting back down onto the bench just for the sake of having somewhere to sit. He left enough room to his side though, in case Rise wanted to too. It would be pretty rude to take up the whole seat if a lady wanted to sit down too! "I am not really that good. At least, I don't think so! My friends are all awesome at playing things. And you should see my Dad play, he's-!"

He paused for just a moment, glancing back at the keys with a twinge of something, maybe a bit sad, coming across his expression.

"-- he's really good at playing. Heheh!"

[couragemantra]

Kurt was looking to maybe purchase a keyboard of his own at the music store, since he'd almost sort of promised to teach Tavros how to sing, and also because he figured it was a sound investment, as most musically-oriented purchases tended to be.

As soon as he stepped into the shop, though, he noticed a somewhat old-fashioned, almost circus-like tune being played from the piano nearby. Looking over, he was surprised to see that it was John sitting at the stool. He waited until the song was finished playing, just watching him in the mean time, and finally stepped over once it was finished.

"You're much better than me, I think," he said with a small smile.

[conheir]

And John's expression brightened tenfold because it was Kurt! Talking!! And looking way better than when he had last seen his friend. It was definitely really cool to see Kurt without a... stomped throat. Definitely!

"You play piano too, Kurt?", he asked, the praise flying right over his head. "I don't think I have met anyone else who does! I mean, besides my dad, heh."

[couragemantra]

Kurt managed to look a little sheepish - what was it? What had he done to deserve that wide smile? Was it just that he was talking? He'd been doing that for about three days, now, and getting better and better at it, too. The hoarseness was almost completely gone from his voice, though he'd tried singing several times that day, and his range was sadly still affected. It had him worried - would he be stuck as a normal tenor for the rest of his life? Sure, he could probably manage songs sung in the alto range, too, but that wasn't the same. He hoped that either continued healing or practice would help his voice further... but a part of him thought that maybe it was selfish to want things to go exactly back to normal. He'd been gifted with so much after that incident already.

John's question brought him back out of his thoughts and into the current moment, and he nodded with a sad smile. "I do. Just a little. May I? I have a song in mind, actually. You'll have to deal with my horrible singing, though - hope you don't mind."

[conheir]

"Oh," he replied, nodding eagerly as he stood up off the bench. "Yeah, sure! I have been playing for a while anyways, haha."

John was actually pretty curious to see if Kurt's voice was as horrible as the guy claimed. Well... he seemed to be talking just fine! Admittedly, John was far from an expert on singing, but he was pretty confident that Kurt was exaggerating. Moving to the side of the piano, he rested his head in his elbows on top of it, waiting for the other to start playing. To be honest, he was sort of excited! He had never seen anyone but his dad play before, really.

[lavenderglasses]

Given his lack of a more legitimate job, Saralegui usually didn't have much that he was required to do once morning training was over (if Sasuke hadn't signed them up for a mission, at least). This lead to a lot of idle wandering around the city, just exploring and seeing what other new and novel things he could discover in this world. The music store was a place he'd already checked out before, but the strands of music that he heard floating out the shop's front door as he passed made him stop and peek inside.

He couldn't remember ever speaking to the boy playing before, or if he had even seen him on the network, but the tune was pretty enough that it drew the king inside, and he hovered by the piano quietly to listen. He didn't want to interrupt him, after all.

ajdfadf i'm sorry

[conheir]

But in the end, Saralegui's purpose was for naught, since John's playing stopped abruptly as he noticed the person stopping by the piano to his side. He looked up, his hands hovering over the keys as a bit of an awkward silence ensued.

"Um," he said eloquently. Then he seemed to realize something and he said, "Oh, jeez, you want to play! That is pretty rude of me, I've been hogging it for a while, huh? Sorry, miss!"

you are my favorite person ever

[lavenderglasses]

He automatically frowned as the song was cut off, but quickly realized the boy was looking at him and erased the expression. He opened his mouth to respond politely, oh-no-I-was-just-listening and such, when he fully processed what John had said and stopped himself.

Miss.

Oh. Well, this could be entertaining.

"Oh no," he said, adopting a sweet smile and gesturing to the piano. "I was just listening. You're very good for your age, you know." As far as he could tell, anyway, but the boy certainly didn't look any older than Sasuke.

/bows

[conheir]

"Heh, that is kind of silly," he commented idly, removing his hands from the keys and swinging his legs back and forth a little on the bench. "You don't even know my age!" Not that it was a very hard thing to figure out by his appearance or anything.

Then his grin grew as he added, "For all you know, I could even be one of those country people. Like Mr. China!"