neverplaysfair | Game 036 [Action/Voice]

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Game 036 [Action/Voice] - Once More With Feeling

[ If you happen to be celebrating the new year with some coffee or pastries or... whatever else Hanekoma feeds people at Kat's Kradle, then you might hear the sound of someone tuning a violin coming from the second story.

It starts off quite out of tune, but within a minute or two, it sounds fine. Then, Joshua starts up a piece of music: fast-paced, somewhat frantic, somewhat chaotic, without chorus or verse, but it has an overall feel to it of life, of progress, of change.

Or maybe you just missed the whole performance.

Either way, a little later, the following goes out over the journal. ]

Why do you want to go home? [ And then, after a short pause, ]

Why do you want to stay?

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[ Joshua plays on, too engrossed in hearing the sounds of his city in his ears, feeling the vibration the music through the instrument. This is his birthday present to himself. Shibuya, pale imitation though it was. Just hearing it resonate through the building and around the room and back to himself was almost, almost like he was hearing it from the outside. He hadn't meant for Sanae to hear, but it doesn't register as something unwanted. ]

[ Sanae's silent for a bit, just listening, before he begins to join in. A high being's vibe and code are flexible, and he's something powerful enough to warp his own Music, put emphasis on a certain strain or undertone. He brings Shibuya's Music to the surface, replicates her sound as best he can. It joins with the music Joshua creates and makes the city's Soul that much stronger, more tangible.

He leans against the hallway wall beside the man's door, uncertain as to the effect this'll have on Josh -- he's yet to explore the issues of proximity and intensity -- but too caught by the bittersweet sound to worry over it. ]

[ With his music he's drawing buildings, sketching skyscrapers, outlining streets and stores and people, the train as it pulls in, the rush that pours in and out and onto the street. A man late for work and waiting for his chance to hurry past the scramble, possibly catching the next train and only being five minutes late, three if he runs from the next station. A woman sitting in the corner of a restaurant, eating her breakfast and tapping a tune with her fingers, trying to put notes to the song in her head. A pair of teens skipping class and browsing through 104, shopping for a friend's birthday. A woman counting her change at the checkout while the nervous shopkeeper looks on, wondering if he's made a mistake. A brother walking his sister to school--

And suddenly, the sister vanishes, as Joshua realizes the duet that had started without him realizing it. On his violin, the bow is still. He wordlessly lowers his instrument to his lap and listens to the Music, actual Music with a capital 'm', and turns to the door, saying nothing, face blank. ]

[ He falters as soon as Joshua stops playing, startled by the sudden silence. The Music dies soon after, Shibuya quieting back to Sanae's own personal song so that he can listen. He shifts uncomfortably outside the door but doesn't knock, doesn't enter, makes no move to encounter Josh or to leave. Listening, waiting. ]

[ Joshua knows that Sanae is waiting. So instead, when he starts playing again, he's left the hustle and bustle behind in favor of detailing a more quiet space. A room of grandeur, of high walls and sweeping murals, of a throne fit for a ruler, all alone in his reign. A room that from the beginning, Joshua entirely redesigned by himself, and the only influence Sanae ever had was the one spot, the one place where the murals converge and focus and connect back to "above", back to the busy city most know Shibuya as. It's partially a challenge. To see if Sanae would dare start recreating again while he was still within this space that was Joshua's. ]

[ He almost joins in, happy to hear the music on the other side of the wall picking up, but it strikes him just in time what he's listening to. This is a personal song, something that his influence can touch and work alongside, but not something to help create. It's not his place to try making this tune, and he knows it. Sanae's becoming very well-acquainted with the practice of doing things that aren't his place to do. Especially when it concerns Joshua and the quiet personal bit of the city he's playing into existence.

He settles more comfortably against the wall, almost awkward in the way he holds off. Sanae wants to contribute, but he knows their relationship is a rocky and messed-up one, knows the obvious pitfalls when he encounters them. Whether or not the word 'challenge' occurs to him, he knows what he isn't supposed to do here.

So he stands by the door and listens. ]

[ Whether Joshua is satisfied by that, or simply not disappointed, even he's not sure. But after a few more minutes, he moves towards the door out, and then he's outside the room. Out in the hallway where the mural on the wall ends, stretching on out to the Conductor's place and further out into the world. ]

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Game 036 [Action/Voice] - Once More With Feeling

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