Something’s going to happen

[Anonymous]

Keir tipped his head to a passing soldier and wondered why he was currently sat on a box on the corner of a street in Reajh playing the guitar despite being a mage whilst his new partner Nastusia who was also a mage sang. If that soldier had been a Mordecai it would have certainly made things difficult.

     The reason he was there though was because of Nastusia, she had insisted on coming here, claiming she hadn't been here in a while and sensed something was going to happen here soon. However Nastusia was thousands of years old and 'soon' to her could mean in a decade or so.

     Keir was a bard and reader of souls and usually worked in Ketra or Adela but he had felt spurred to go to Essryn, however finding nothing of interest there he had started to head back to Ketra. On his way he met a young silver-haired, red-eyed girl who looked about six, called Nastusia. He couldn't just leave her so invited her to come with him. She had accepted and had turned out to be a great boon to his work. People just loved sweet little kids, especially ones that could sing so well. They worked in Ketra for a bit until Nastusia had a dream foretelling something happening in Reajh which brought the story full circle.

     People who passed glanced at Nastusia, some uttering small 'aahs' and 'isn't she cute' but some were whispering 'she has red eyes' in suspicion. Well as long as a Mordecai didn't find them they should be alright.

     If Nastusia was caught she would be like a Mordecai's dream catch, she knew magic, was immortal, had lived thousands, of years, was an unknown race and could remember 'the time before though', bits of it anyway and also could vividly recall many of the world's historical events.

     Her song now finished, Nastusia sat down on the ground next to Keir.

     "I wonder what it is that's going to happen," Nastusia said.

     "Who knows," Keir said absent-mindedly checking the tuning on his guitar.

     The silver haired girl laid back on the group and giggled, "Maybe they'll finally catch me?"

     "If that's it why did we come here?" Keir asked worriedly.

     Nastusia sat up, "If I'm caught, then that's destiny. I know I am supposed to come here and if it is because I'm supposed to be caught and killed then so be it."

     Nastusia certainly is a strange girl Keir thought; she didn't seem to be scared of death at all. He on the other hand, despite how he would hide it, was terrified of death and scared of her getting killed.

[Anonymous]

Mina laughed as she waved her familiar off-duty friend away with a light shove, adjusting the leather pack full with a few items of errand slung over her shoulder as she did so. The soldier she'd been walking and conversing playfully with, who might have been even younger than her, grinned and re-fastened his belongings before turning at the corner of another street and separating from the young woman.

For some reason, it had never unnerved Mina that she could be friends with people who, due to their upbringing and deeply-instilled moral principles that were far more attributable to the culture and society in which they'd both grown up than any fault of their own other than the obvious, would certainly turn against her with little more than a second or third thought if the need arose in accordance with their station.

Even as she continued down the street, dodging others through the busy, fleshy din of the city, she was less concerned with this fact than the fact that a hole was slowly forming in the heel of her left shoe. It had insisted to grow since she'd checked the little leather slipper yesterday. On a scale of one to ten, the former disturbed her for the moment at a solid two while the latter landed somewhere around a pressing five. The nearby strum of a guitar sifting through the everyday noise might even have lowered that to a four.

However, what she saw next upon raising her gaze once more to people-level from street-level (shoe-level?) was probably a definitive seven.

Approaching the corner of the next narrow street, Mina saw a bard, performing with a partner. This in and of itself was not unusual, aside from the fact that the aforementioned partner was a child with silvery hair (easily mistaken for blonde with a bit of extension of the imagination and the slight but noticeable coloring affect of sunlight) and starkly contrasting red eyes that could not be ignored nor mistaken. Mina's jaw tightened, but she did not pause until she came closer and stood in front with a small gathering of strangers as if enjoying the song that the child sang and her adult counterpart played rather beautifully in unison, careful to filter into the back of the group so that she could look closely at the pair without fear of inciting further scrutiny from others that had undoubtedly different intentions. She wondered wildly as she watched but kept her expression level and pleasant as usual.

The song came to an end, and the child sat down beside the bard. The little crowd broke off into different, meandering directions. Mina turned with the faces of the gathering, but turned back as soon as the others had filtered away and stepped forward a bit. The two were talking briefly as the viewers dispersed, some leaving small tokens and coins, but she could not make out what was being said. The peculiar little girl seemed to be musing contentedly about something or other as Mina stepped up to look down at the odd seated pair, though the bard looked less than happy about whatever was said.

"-then so be it."

"Hello," Mina began brightly, glancing from the young girl to the man as if unsure of who to address. "Excuse me, but you two wouldn't happen to be from around here, would you?"

[Anonymous]

Keir looked at the newcomer appraisingly, and then noticing it wasn't a soldier changed his demeanour to that of a friendlier one.

     He laughed, "No we are not. Do we really stick out all that much?"

     That was a stupid question really off course they did, Nastusia had silver hair and red eyes and he himself looked a little unusual with his heterochromic eyes, one green, one red. They were quite the pair.

     "Ah, how rude I am," Keir continued, "I am Keir the Bard, at your service."

     "And I'm Nastusia," Nastusia giggled, "What's your name."

     Nastusia always knew when she should act like a child; it would be rather suspicious if she talked like she normally did. She was a lot more eloquent than most adults.

     The girl in front of them didn't seem too bad though. Keir could read people's souls simply by looking into their eyes and he could tell she wasn't really a bad person but there was some secret lurking in the background.

[Anonymous]

Metti, with that thick-headedness only he could possess, figured Reajh was as good a place as any for him to play for the evening. It had not occured to him that he, dripping with magic, would be an obvious target for any locals. Walking the street, steel resonator slung over his back, pedestrians gave him a wide derth. He pretended not to notice. A lit, hand-wrapped cigarette hung from one lip as he searched, like a dog sniffing out cooking meat, for the sound of music that floated through the street. He saw another bard, with him an angel-faced child. The man's playing wasn't bad, in fact it was technically flawless, with a graceful legato. But to Metti's own ear it stunk of flavor-of-the-month stylings. He's just playin' through the motions now. Time to give the people a show.

In the sense of competition, Metti sat down directly across from his fellow guitarist on a barrel, placed the glass slide on his pinkie finger, the cigarette in one of the string-trees and started his way into a 12-bar pentatonic run, putting the guitar through its paces. He stopped for a moment, checking the intonation as several pedestrians stopped seemingly dumbstruck by his flamboyant dress and esoteric playing. He began now to play a shuffle, adding plentiful slide licks between smokey lines of vocal melody,

"If you see me comin' open up your door
If you see me comin' open up your door
I'll give you more lovin' than any man before,"
His thumb continued hitting the shuffle melody while his remaining fingers soloed over it, in stuttering bursts and slow slide wails...

"When I hit your door, better treat me right
When I hit your door, better treat me right
Oh, I need you baby, got no time to-
Got no time to fight,"
Another interlude as the playing became more frenzied. Metti let himself play slightly ahead of the beat, and hit strange atonal notes with the spank of hard-plucking.

"I'll do for you, I'm gonna do for you
If you do for me, I'm gonna do for you
I'll be your man
If you ask me to,"
Metti started challenging himself, and now he began to grit his teeth as he wrung from the guitar note after note, jerking the neck as he seemed almost to be throttling it, bending it to his will for the final run along the neck.

The whole song took about three minutes, and in that time he had been swarmed by people, tossing coins into a small tin bucket he had placed at his feet. Metti exhaled as if exhausted, smiled at this other bard, then turned and thanked his newfound fans for their generous patronage.

[Anonymous]

Mina took an almost noticeably longer look at Nastusia, delivering her own answer in turn with a smile. Something struck her momentarily, as if something about the flow of what she'd heard hadn't worked properly. She doubted it was her hearing that needed fine-tuning.

"I'm Mina. I work in the inn, First and Last, down the block," she replied with a gesture over her shoulder, the way she had come.

"I know it's-" Of course, mid-sentence the young woman was interrupted rather abpruptly by the bloom of a new tune, almost challenging its predecessor, still lingering in the air, with its proximity. Blinking, she turned around only to be met with the sight of another, far more flamboyantly dressed bard planted directly across the way with instrument in hand and vocal cords warmed, cranking out a vastly unfamiliar style that she wasn't sure that she hated or loved for the surprise and near-distress this situation had the escalating potential to cause or was causing.

This was bad. This was very bad, considering the fact that an even larger crowd of perhaps ten or so citizens was attracted to the spectacle as well as many others in passing. And what a spectacle it was by looks alone! Unable to help herself, Mina's mouth dropped open, brow raising in unison. She could only hope that Keir and Nastusia did not respond, turning back to them.

Mina caught sight toward a group of guards near a corner post a few yards from where they stood whose attention had shifted onto the peculiar set-up and were beginning to eye the participants.

No matter what depended on all reactions from this short point, she had a feeling that this would be a hell of a way to end an errand-run.

[Anonymous]

Metti saw the tiny little woman become visibly distressed at his playing. He smiled again, this time toothily, calling out to the Bard with whom she had been speaking. "Good sir! If ya don't mind, I'm gonna play another for these folks, then maybe you can play again. Or, if ya know this one, come on in." His eyes glinted into a golden yellow for only a moment. The last bit was a joke to himself. Even if the man had wanted to, the song itself hadn't been played in a few hundred years. "This one's a little instrumental called 'Testify,' and... Well, maybe ya like it, maybe y' don't."

Another quick tuning adjustment and the slide back in his pocket and Mettie was off again. The playing itself almost became an athletic feat as his hand lept across the fretboard. If there were a way to follow this, Metti didn't know it. He was actually sweating from the effort, and the crowd didn't know what to make of it. Agape, they stood. Mettie himself felt his hair stiffening and changing to a burnt red. Nothing he could do about it now. Suddenly several of his patrons began to backaway from him, as if hoping not to be tainted by his sorcery.

((OOC: Youtube 'Testify' if you'd like to actually hear the song.))

[Anonymous]

Keir rolled his eyes at the spectacle. Keir didn't even need to read the other man's soul, he was so obvious. A flamboyant fool who liked to show off and draw attention to himself without looking around him and without considering what situation he was in. He was clearly a mage and wasn't even bothering to hide the magic he was exuding and he was clearly attracting the attention of the guards.

     Keir contemplated using his other magical ability which could remove sound, but then attention would be turned to him and the guards certainly would come after them.

     However he found he didn't need to when Nastusia walked across to the man and said, "I remember this song," and began 'la-ing' along for a little while.

     Then she stepped back with her arms behind her back smiling rather evilly.

     "Perhaps you know this one, hehe."
     "How can you see into my eyes like open doors
     leading you down into my core
     where I've become so numb...
     without a soul...
     my spirit's sleeping somewhere cold
     until you find it there and lead it back home
     Wake me up inside
     Wake me up inside
     call my name and save me from the dark
     bid my blood to run
     before I come undone
     save me from the nothing I've become"

     Keir had never heard either of them songs and guessed they must be quite old, though that didn't explain why the other bard knew such a song unless he was immortal like Nastusia...

     Nastusia giggled, "That's songs from a real long time ago mister. I remember when it was the charts, hehe."

     Okay, Keir was confused, what was she talking about? The people who had stopped to watch the strange man were now looking at her in confusion and suspicion and the strange bard as well.

     Noticing that the subject should really be changed he quickly replied to Mina, "Mina is it? That is a nice name. How might we help you today?"


[OOC o.O Not keen on Rage Against the Machine myself, I have to listen to my brother playing them enough o.O
I was going to get Nastusia to sing 'Heart of Everything' by Within Temptation but I thought I'd choose something more popular and recognisable ^^ so I chose 'Bring me to Life' ^^]

[Anonymous]

Metti just shook his head, after her song. "So you know about th' blues... And yet you come to me with that half-song? For shame, li'l girl." He looked at her knowingly, smiling wryly as if to say he recognized a fellow non-human.  He wrung his picking hand through his hair and it became black once more, looking nonchalantly at civilians around him. He then extricated his cigarette and took a drag from it, lazily. Looking at Nastusia through half lidded eyes, he blew the smoke out his nose and said, "The name is Metander Strangefolk. Quite appropriate I think you'll agree. I think you'll also agree it's tiresome to pretend to be something you're not." He chuckled slightly at this, a jab at the girl's affected 'child' routine and took another drag.

"You can be real with me, honey," smoke escaping as he spoke. "I dunno where you and ya friend have to run to, but if it's not someplace safe I suggest you follow me in a few." He nodded to a cadre of city guards rounding the corner and marching up the street some 20 yards away.

He turned his attention to his fellow bard, whose disdain was palpable even at this distance. "You got somethin' to lose from these bucketheads too, yeah?" He began leisurely closing up shop, as it were, putting the gold in a small pouch, slinging the resonator over his shoulder.

[Anonymous]

((You guys go on. I'm going to have less time than I thought to post this weekend and next week due to exams.))

[Anonymous]

"I'm Nastusia Manasa," Nastusia said, "And Mr Sunshine over there is Keir."

     She hadn't met an immortal in a long time she had taken an interest in Keir because he thought like and immortal and had the personality of someone who had lived a long time, but still, he was human.

     Someone else who could remember old earth was a rare thing and Nastusia couldn't help wondering how far back he could remember.

     Nastusia noticed Keir glance toward the soldiers; he shifted his guitar onto his back and stood up.

     "We'd better get out of here."

     Nastusia nodded then turned to Metander, "You go first, we'll 'follow you in a few'"