Cast: Millie (Cyber) and Mars (Midas)
TLDR:
Support Points Earned: 2
June 24, 2018
June 25, 2018
June 26, 2018
June 28, 2018
June 29, 2018
July 1, 2018
July 4, 2018
July 5, 2018
July 8, 2018
July 9, 2018
TLDR:
Support Points Earned: 2
[2:29 AM] everyone: The sound of Millie's violin peacefully drifted across the Alarosian hills. The melody was simple, slow and fluttery. To most the song would have sounded fine, it wasn't anything intricate or complicated. But to Millie, she felt like she was trying to saw a slab of marble. Her mind had been trained to play that one song for so long, it rejected anything else. She hated that song, it felt like a tumor ingrained into her brain.
A stray strand of hair wandered across her face, and she paused to move it out of the way. The evening wind combined with the orange sunset gave her the illusion of peace. Like a comforting hand telling her everything would be alright. Millie took the stray strand of hair and thoughtfully twirled it around her finger.
She continued to play the song through the sunset. Over and over until it drowned out the wind. It was by no means perfect, there were a few missed tones and incorrect pitches. But Millie didn't mind.
As the last vestiges of sunlight left the sky, the lamplight of the town below her took their place. Millie finished the song, and put the violin down. She felt like she had memorized the song enough that she didn't need the sheet, but she would still need to practice more. But for now she was satisfied. Using a match she lit her own lantern and hung it from under a nearby tree branch.
[2:29 AM] everyone: But as the first song faded from her mind, the other one returned. It drilled it's way back into her mind like a worm, forcing her to remember. Millie shook her head. She didn't want to hear it, she didn't want to remember.
Millie couldn't escape. She picked the violin back up. From the moment the wood touched her chin she felt like her heart had been removed. Every motion, every thought felt like that of a machine. A network of gears, perfect precision.
The song didn't drift this time, it marched. An army of noise slowly invading the surrounding area. Millie's mind began to fade as she played. The only thing that mattered was the perfect note, the perfect rhythm, the perfect play. Her arm swung the bow around like the minute hand on the clock. Her humanity had slipped from her fingertips, leaving the world with a husk of flesh.
[10:02 PM] != Dendi: Mars had had a rough day to say the least. Yesterday was important, and had forced him to reflect on what he had been doing all his life. So today, Mars had a plan to spend this day simply thinking. Turns out that he forgot about the whole "bloody from stab wound" robes thing when he was making this plan, and left to go clean his robes-now-cloak in a nearby creek.
When Mars arrived, it was about mid day, the sun was just beginning its advance through the top of the sky and towards the horizon. After cleaning his cloak, Mars hung it up in a tree to dry, and realized that he should probably keep an eye on them whilst they dried. Because of this, here he was, wearing his standard blue undershirt, and leaning against a tree, feeling a little bad he didn't tell Seed that he was exiting camp.
Then, right as Mars was going to return to camp, he heard music. It was beautiful, serene, the kind of music he wanted to fall asleep to. So, he stayed a while, and listened. Every time the music stopped for what Mars postulated would be the last time, it would start back up moments later and Mars would think to himself
Oh, what's one more song?
So, as the minutes turned to hours, and the sun had set, Mars kept leaning, eventually he sat down, and finally he was on his back, staring at the sky. Then, he heard the music again. Well, to call it "The music" would be misleading, it was the same violin, clearly, but it was a different song. This one was also serene, but it didn't feel natural. It felt like it was being played by one of those fancy pianos capable of playing music by themselves, which was too accurate. Real music feels different each time you play it, like there's a flaw, that's what's human about it, there are milliseconds of time missed, beats not always kept to perfectly, noted slightly too high or low. This made Mars curious, and a little annoyed that what he thought was a better song had stopped. But not quite enough to get off his ass and check it out himself.
[10:02 PM] != Dendi: But the song kept going, it repeated, looped, the way it looped was unnatural too, like someone had to reset a machine. The song's monotony was annoying, but at this point Mars was very tired, almost enough to drift off to sleep every time the song had ended, but not quite enough to stay asleep through the next loop. Finally, he had an idea, and stood up.
You see, Mars had been practicing using wind to bend sound waves, amplifying them by recreating them with great intensity, creating wholy new sounds, echoing his own voice, etc. So, Mars turned to face the source of the music, the top of the hill he’d been laying on, created a barrier of wind around his mouth, and screamed with all his might
“ALRIGHT, I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE, JUST SHUT, THAT, DAMN, THING, UP!”
Mars trapped that sound using a wind barrier of sorts, like blowing a bubble in bubble gum, expect instead of air it was making a sort of bubble of sound, and as his voice bounced around the bubble, he slowly added his energy to it, and got ready to let it loose.
Ok, here's hoping this works, well, it’s going to work , but here’s hoping it doesn’t deafen everyone in a 1 mile radius.
Mars had never tried to amplify his this much, he’d performed occasionally and used it such that he didn’t have to simply yell towards the crowd with all his might. So, as a last measure of protection, he casted another wind spell over his ears, meant to act as a shield towards what could be a very loud shockwave. This would end up saving him from going deaf, or at least having his ears ring for a very long time.
Mars pointed what was now a sort of sound grenade at the top of the hill, and let all of his wind magic holding the sound in disappear. Any semblance of words were lost in the sheer volume, Mars literally knocked himself off his feet with the sheer pressure, and if he was any closer to the town glass would’ve shattered. Needless to say, it was incredibly loud.
[10:19 PM] everyone: The blast assaulted Millie mid song, blowing her hair into the air and almost knocking her over. Millie's bow had been blown of by the shockwave, and her hair fluttered onto her shoulders as the dust settles. Fortunately her body had taken the brunt of the force and left her violin unharmed.
"What in Kyria's..."
She quickly put the instrument in its case and slung it over her back. She had never felt anything like it, and assumed it was some kind of magical attack from far away.
She wasn't entirely sure what could have caused it, but it felt powerful. The trees and grass all bent away from what she assumed was the source of the blast. Millie drew her sword and approached cautiously, the surface of her blade sparkling with electrical energy.(edited)
[12:55 PM] != Dendi: Well, ok, let's pro/con this whole thing.
Mars thought to himself as he slowly started standing back up
On one hand, my cloak could be just about anywhere behind me in about a 500 feet semicircle, there's probably a bunch of very angry people back in town, and I feel like I was just punched in the gut. But on the other hand, that damned music is gone, so I'd call this a net positive.
Finally regaining his footing, Mars checked under his shirt, and found a bruise that stretched all across his chest, like a purple band. Mars wasn't particularly annoyed that he'd have to cover it from people, he wore that undershirt everywhere anyways, he was, admittedly, a little scared at the prospect of Seed finding out. After a short time, he looked back up towards the hilltop, and was barely able to make out a figure carrying a sword near the top of the hill.
Oh shit.
Mars, now realizing he'd also blasted his tomes away, decided to hide and prepare a spell. Finding a tree thick enough to hide himself for a short time, Mars took cover and began channeling this first thing that came to his mind, a sword of ice.
Alright, don't fail me now.
[1:34 PM] everyone: It was painfully obvious who the caster of the shockwave was. Millie doubted anyone else in the vicinity was capable of casting something like that and if they did Mars wouldn't be the only one she could see. Her eyes glinted in anger as she approached the guilty looking mage.
"I hope you have a good explanation because your bones will probably depend on it."
Millie folded her arms and jutted out her hip as she stared Mars down. She could totally try to skewer him right here, but Zain would probably yell at her. Plus, she didn't want to clean his blood off her new clothes.
[3:30 PM] != Dendi: Mars, upon making out Millie's form from the darkness, he let out a short sigh of relief.
"Oh, it's you. I thought it was someone who had plans to hurt me."
Mars said, after already hearing Millie's threat.
"I'm just glad I don't have anything to worry about, after all, I'm fairly useless when using this thing."
Mars said, pointing to his half-formed sword of ice in his left hand. He then turned his back to Millie and started walking, before stopping and turning back around.
"Wait, were you the one playing the music? Because by gods... that second song was the most monotonous, unnatural, inhuman piece I've heard in my life."
[3:47 PM] everyone: Millie didn't put away her sword and continued to stare at Mars disapprovingly.
"Were you the one that casted the shockwave? Because by the gods you could have blown out my eardrums and probably murder a few animals."
She shook her head and went back to pick up her violin case. If Mars escaped while she had turned away so be it.(edited)
[4:56 PM] != Dendi: Mars was about to retort, before stopping himself.
No.. that's not going to help anyone... but she needs to understand her failings if she's to become a better person... so...
"Alright, it may not have been a good idea. But I'm being serious when I said your music was unnatural. Mind you, that first song I heard was beautiful, I was ready to fall asleep right where I laid. But when you swapped over it's like you turned on one of those fancy pianos that can play songs by themselves. Every note had the exact right beat between each of them, never missing, never skipping, never mis-timed, nothing. It was, disturbing. But... I had been laying here for a long time, so I figured that I could probably doze off to the music regardless. But... it was impossible, and that hilltop was a ways away. So... I tried to amplify my voice using some wing magic. I had been using that technique for a while, but because of how sound works, I figured that simply amplifying it normally would just cause it to fizzle out before it reached the hilltop, and that your music, loud as it was, would drown it out."
Mars took a deep breath
"...Sorry."
Mars said that last word solemnly.
"I'll be on my way."
Mars started walking back towards town.
[5:34 PM] everyone: "No it's fine."
Millie sighed and sheathed her sword. She was tired and didn't feel like confronting Mars anyways.
"I wasn't hurt too badly, and I understand what you mean."
Her violin case began to feel heavy. Millie ran her hand through her hair and stared at the night sky, trying to pick out a particular constellation.
"You're right about that song. It used to be beautiful...But now..."
Millie looked at Mars. He looked like he was in pretty bad shape. His clothing was disheveled and Millie noticed Mars had a few bruises and cuts near his torso.
"You're right, I shouldn't have played that song."(edited)
[6:03 PM] != Dendi: Mars paused after hearing Millie's regret.
There's something there.
Mars thought
Something... I should not pry at.
Mars turned back around to face Millie
"Yes, but... I can tell that you'd practiced that song a for days. It takes inhuman skill to maintain perfection as you did there. That doesn't happen overnight, and it never will. What matters now is not that you never play the song again, nor that you abandon playing music altogether, what matters is adapting. Change the song, at this point I'm willing to bet you could play it backwards, try that. It sure as hell won't sound better to the untrained ear, but it will be something. If you would like I could just alter it manually."
Mars said, not realizing how dumb it sounded until after he said it aloud.
"...That made no sense. Sorry, what I meant is that, again, I've been using wind magic to make music for about a year now, if you'd like I can manually change the sound of your music. Again, it won't sound good, I'm not familiar with the song after all, but it will be different. And that's the point of music."
[6:51 PM] everyone: Millie smiled but shook her head.
"Thanks for the offer, but no thanks."
She ran her hand through her hair and looked away from Mars.
"You can make music out of wind magic?"
[1:36 PM] != Dendi: "Well, yeah. I mean, all sound is waves, tiny waves, flowing through the air. Bending the air allows me to create more waves, amplify the strength of the those waves, focus them, alter them. Wind magic is just the easiest way to do that. If you want and example..."
Mars placed his hands in front of his chest, touching at the fingertips. After a short time, one could hear what sounded like the echo of Mars' voice
"I could act like those who've fallen to your schemes, I could fight but I know you'd just die by me, I can hear what you're hoping I want to hear, I can feel the alarm bells are ringing in me."
The voice faded after repeating that verse twice.
"So"
Mars opened his mouth to speak
"that's what it could look like."(edited)
[4:43 PM] everyone: Millie tilted her head as she listened to the song. It was definitely different from normal singing. Then again mars was one of the last people she would have expected to sing, but she didn't say that out loud.
"Dramatic..."
She sat down next to the tree, which was tilted from the force of the shockwave, and took out her violin again. She paused as she tried to recreate the melody in her head.
"Duh duh da duh duh duh duh duun duh da...."
It had been a while since she had been able to play by ear, but Millie tried nonetheless. Instead of directly converting the sound to notes, she referenced similar notes to her song, and rearranged them so that they sounded more like Mars's song.
"Like that?"(edited)
"Like that?"(edited)
[12:19 PM] != Dendi: "Yeah, like that."
Mars was happy to hear normal music again.
"But what I did there was just adlib, making up random words that seem to go together. I save the important stuff for when I actually perform."
Mars paused
"...if I ever even perform."
[5:21 PM] everyone: Millie played the melody again, altering the tune slightly so it felt uplifitng rather than dramatic. It took her a few tries, but once in a while her focus would slip, and she would find herself returning to that haunted machina once again. After the third try she sighed and gave up.
"Have you performed before?"
[11:59 AM] != Dendi: "Uh..."
Mars was silent for a while, turning his face away
"Yes, but uh, I'd rather forget about it."(edited)
[11:59 PM] everyone: Millie shrugged and didn't press the topic further. Stage fright was normal, and she had heard some horror stories of other performances and recitals.
"I used to perform back home. My teacher forced me to practice a lot before recitals...."
She pointed the violin bow like a sword and stared it down with one eyed closed.
"But it absolutely bores the mind to play the same song over and over again."
[7:42 PM] != Dendi: "Well, I wouldn't know."
Mars said candidly
"I barely practice. It's mostly writing and then testing to see if I need to create any sounds I haven't before. That's what I practice, making individual sounds and pieces, after all, long strings of repeated sounds are relatively easy when you magic for other things anyways. Eventually you can make it second nature to shift your pitch or tone up and down with practice."
Mars was trying to show off by constantly shifting his voice's pitch up and down.
[4:05 AM] everyone: Millie shrugged and flicked her bow out like a sword, lazily swishing it around.
"I guess..."
The sun had completely set and the stars had crept out from under the mountains to dance in the sky. Millie wondered what it was like to be a star. Was it lonely? Easy? Perhaps Caspin would know now.
She could barely see Mars in the darkness by now. She simply sat with her back against the trees as she stared at the sky.
"Why did you try to attack me back then?"
[10:43 PM] != Dendi: "Well uh..."
Mars was staring at the stars when Millie asked her question
"...I'm usually quite good with dealing with taunts."
Mars said, lying
"But uh, let's just say you caught me on a bad day."
He wasn't lying, that day had been frustrating because of his failure to translate him tome. That tome was, and still is, an enigma.
"Oh shit."
Mars just remembered, his tome! He pawed around his robes and remembered, again, that they, along with his books, had been blown away in the blast.
"I uh... just remembered something very important. I'm afraid I'll have to cut this bit here short."
Mars turned around and, with a snap of his fingers, conjured a tiny fireball above his hand. Despite its size, the ball was bright, incredibly so, bright enough to illuminate all around Mars' feet.
[3:15 PM] everyone: Millie didn't say anything as Mars got up. She didn't think attacking an unprepared teammate was justified by a bad day, but she wasn't going to lecture him either.
"Good luck finding your tome."
Millie brought the violin back up to her chin. She didn't want to return to the convoy. It didn't seem like there was anything there for her beyond her tent. The weather outside was nice enough, maybe she could just stay here.
"Maybe I'll get to see you perform someday."
She said the last part under her breath and continued playing the violin alone.
[5:39 PM] everyone: === RP END ===
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