Day 29: Music Room

[mylackofeffort.livejournal.com]

Quatre was thankful that his "name" wasn't called to be visited, but there was always the next shift. He knew he probably should have hunted down his comrades to see if they were safe this shift as well and if they could think of a plan to escape. It was strange being in captivity, Quatre had never been caught by OZ and when one of the remaining White Fang factions had attempted to assassinate him, the action had resulted in the deaths of many innocent politicians and bureaucrats; people who had families and who had honestly been hoping to do the best with the peace that Quatre and so many like him had tried so hard to obtain.

There were a few things that could completely take Quatre's mind off even the most horrible of facts, one of them was music. So when the nurse mentioned that he could go to the 'Music Room' he couldn't help but want to at least look in the room. There was an assortment of instruments for him to choose from. There were no classical pieces to speak of, but Quatre considered the fact that an attentive enough patient could use a number of the pieces of a piano to kill someone. That and you couldn't really use headphones on a real flute.

He ran his fingers over the electric keyboard before sitting down to it.

He had once told a good friend, Noin, that he played what he felt and at the moment his anxiousness was overwhelming. If he played at least a little bit of it, it might release from him, might take some of the pressure from his heart.

That, and it would be reassuring to be doing something he loved to do. He placed the headphones on his ears, trying not to allow his emotions to affect any of the patients that might enter the room after him, and started to play.

The sound was dulled, probably for safety reasons, but that was probably for the best. If anyone spoke to him he would be able to hear, even if he let the music that his fingers played with electrical sound take him away from Landel's prison walls.

Comments

[not-rly-fai.livejournal.com]

[[Let me know if I need to delete]]

Brunch had been interesting. He wasn't sure what he'd expected from the man who had tried and nearly succeeded in killing him. But there seemed to be little use in fretting over it now. This shift they were giving them all lots of choices, which was nice, and also gave him more places to run to should he bump into the wrong people.

He was a little disappointed that he wasn't one of the ones called for a visitor. It would, of course, be the perfect opportunity for someone like Syaoran or Sakura, or... others to show up and come to the rescue. It'd helped greatly to hear that others had experienced the same thing last night, running into creatures who looked like people they knew. It gave him hope, even if it wasn't very much.

Yuuhi glanced around the room at the different instruments and saw that hardly anyone had arrived just yet. There was a boy playing what looked like a piano, but there was no sound as he pressed the keys. Curious, he thought, and decided to walk over. It'd been some time since he last played, but it was hard to forget.

He stood near the boy's piano bench and waved hello, not wanting to interrupt if he was absorbed in the piece.

[mylackofeffort.livejournal.com]

Quatre noticed the man waving at him and stopped playing. He pulled the headphones down as to not appear rude and smiled.

"Hello," he said. "Would you like to play?" He thought that was probably why the man was standing next to the keyboard.

[not-rly-fai.livejournal.com]

"Mm," he hesitated, looking curiously at the piano. "I haven't seen one like this before. Does the music play in those?" he asked, indicating the headphones. He took a seat on the edge of the bench, trying not to crowd the other boy as he plunked a finger down on one of the keys. There was no clear ringing sound as the piano he'd learned to play on might make. The keys felt a little different too, plastic and false.

He looked up at the other boy after a moment, realizing that in his fascination he hadn't even introduced himself yet. "Oh! I'm Fai D. Flourite, but just Fai if you please. The rest is much too long."

[mylackofeffort.livejournal.com]

"My name is Quatre Raberba Winner," the other blond said with a smile. "But Quatre is just fine. It's nice to meet you Mr Fai."

"This is an electric keyboard. Not as nice as a piano, but it is basically the same thing. The sound in a little different. Usually you can play it for the entire room to hear, but because it is electric you can also attach headphones like these. Here put these on and then play something." He handed Fai the headphones while at the same time looking to see if there was a spot for another set. Sometimes keyboards at least had two for duets.

The last person that Quatre had played anything with was Trowa. He set his jaw against the memory. Trowa wasn't here so Quatre had no idea how the pilot of Heavyarms was. It was troublesome. Instead of thinking about it he reached for the second pair of headphones for himself, putting them on to hear what Fai would play.

[i-slay-giants.livejournal.com]

Jack regretted his decision to visit the music room. At the time, it had struck him as the kind of place he could meet women. He had been having such success at lunch (or so he told himself) with Nami that he must still have that charm the ladies so loved. It only seemed right that he go off and find as many lovely ladies as he could to share his gift with. It was only fair, wasn't it?

Instead, all he saw were a couple of guys chatting and no women. How lame was that? Still, he'd wait it out for a little bit, see if anyone interesting showed up, then mosey back to someplace a bit less...musical.

[quickdrawbkiddo.livejournal.com]

Beatrix entered the music room, limping thanks to the air cast on her ankle, and cast her gaze about the room. Despite not having seen BB, which she was becoming less and less certain would happen, she had enjoyed her conversation with SubZero. The assassin was interesting, someone she could feel kinship with, except she was retired and once she had reclaimed her daughter and destroyed her captors and those that held BB, she would be done killing.

The instruments held no interest to her, but she decide to leaf through the cds available out of mild curiosity at how horrid these people's tastes were. She knelt down by the boxes, noting the presence of the rugged0looking blonde man nearby, but didn't really give him any of her attention. Well, not any more than any paranoid former assassin would give another person that gave off the combat-capable vibes.

[i-slay-giants.livejournal.com]

Jack noticed Beatrix and arched an eyebrow as he looked her over. She wasn't bad looking...a little older, perhaps, or one of those "stressed out on life" types. Didn't change the fact she had a nice ass (and yes, Jack could tell through the sweatclothes; he was that awesome, he reminded himself).

Now, how was he going to go about arranging to tap that....

[boot-i-licious.livejournal.com]

Rinali couldn't help but feel a little saddened that her name hadn't been called for visitors. After all, if anyone would come for her, it would be Komui, and even if he was an illusion or a trick here, it would have been nice to have seen his face. She missed him more with each passing day. It wasn't that she had never spent so much time away from him...after all, many missions took weeks or even months away from the base without him...but now there was no certainty that she'd see him again. It hurt to think of that.

At least Allen and Ravi were here...or at least Allen was. She hadn't seen Ravi in a day and a half, and that made her nervous. Hopefully they'd show themselves, sooner or later.

She went to the music room, seeing as she'd never been here before and was curious. She couldn't play any instruments, but there would undoubtedly be others here who could, and it would be pleasant to listen to them play. She sat down somewhere out of the way and waited to see who else might show up. There were bound to be quite a few musicians in the institute.

[bewarethecute.livejournal.com]

Ururu still wasn't happy. Kisuke-san was gone, and that was a lot of sadness to overcome. But talking with Rukia had made her feel better, and so had eating her hamburger. Maybe not completely, but it was a start, and starting was good.

All the talk of visitors was scary though. Ururu didn't think she could handle seeing someone only for them to go away again. Not right now, at least.

But she hadn't been one of the ones taken away, so Ururu was free to wander. She'd only made it out into the Sun Room when she saw someone she remembered from the night before. Ururu had to move quickly to catch up, but Rinali was still alone when she came into the music room. That was good, because Ururu didn't want to interrupt her.

"Um, excuse me." Ururu moved over to the girl almost shyly, but not so timid that she couldn't be heard. "My name is Ururu. I was with Orihime-san last night. I just wanted to know if you and your friend were okay."

[boot-i-licious.livejournal.com]

Oh! The little girl from last night! She smiled warmly. "I'm Rinali Li. It's a pleasure to meet you, Ururu."

Last night had been rough, both on Allen and on her. Thankfully the morning came and everything was alright. She hadn't talked to Allen today, but she saw him across the room a couple of times, and he was doing fine. It had been a relief.

"Yes," she answered. "We're both fine, but thank you for your concern. Are you and Orihime doing alright?"

[the-clown-king.livejournal.com]

The keyboard was always taken.

Tamaki sighed, looking weary and worn and much more serious than was normal. He had spent the rest of brunch not eating, his head down on the table, just trying to come to terms with things in his own mind.

With a longing glance at the keyboard, he simply curled up in a chair and hugged his legs, his chin resting on his knees.

He didn't want to have to talk to the twins, but... well, this was the sort of thing that had to be done in person. And now, more than ever, they needed to stick together.

[kaerutokoro.livejournal.com]

The Music Room was the last place Rena had expected to enter. The girl was hardly a fan of the audible arts; although she appreciated music in general, it was not the sort of activity she sought out. Plus, she had promised to visit the Sun Room for some business with the bulletin. If only her nurse hadn't shoved her into the wrong room...

Ah, well. There would be plenty of time to sneak off into the Sun Room later. Plus, it wouldn't hurt to take a look around considering there were so many new elements about. Maybe they would distract Rena from the unfortunate news at brunch. Pleased with this prospect, she took several steps into the room, pausing whenever something interesting caught her eye.

It did not take long for the girl to find a clear distraction. An older boy--around Satoshi's age, Rena estimated--was sitting in one of the chairs, his posture the perfect model of melancholy. Rena couldn't help frowning at the sight. He looked so sad...

Quietly, in hopes of not startling him, Rena approached the young man, pausing a couple of feet off to the side. With her hands folded behind, Rena tilted her head and offered a sympathetic, "Are you all right? Are you?"

[the-clown-king.livejournal.com]

Tamaki looked up, and forced a small smile on his face.

"I'm fine," he said. "No need to worry, fair princess. I'm waiting for my friends - but I don't think they got my message. And I've the horrible fear I perhaps was supposed to meet them elsewhere." It had been the sort of day where keeping track of things like that hadn't been the easiest thing to do.

And he still needed to find his two special people... he hadn't seen or spoken to either of them since the day before.

[his-singer.livejournal.com]

Bella had slept through breakfast. Or brunch, whatever it was. Waking up in the Sun room was a weird feeling, and when the nurse led her out, she felt even weirder. When asked if she wanted to head in for breakfast, she quickly shook her head – for some reason, she wasn’t all that hungry. Instead, she opted for the music room.

It wasn’t even crowded – Bella was slightly happy for this, at least. Someone was playing the keyboard while someone was listening, and she smiled, remembering the first time Edward had played the lullaby for her. A nostalgic twinge crept up in her stomach, and she quickly moved into the room, ignoring the nurse as she chattered about a visitor or something. Great.

Moving towards what appeared to be a bunch of CD players and walkmans, Bella reached out and grabbed onto a CD player and a set of headphones before proceeding to move onto the CD collection. Her choice was quick – a CD she had heard once upon a time in Edward’s car.

Moving towards one of the empty chairs, she then stuck the CD into the player and put the headphones on, skipping to her choice song. Moments later Clair de Lune filled her head, and she shut her eyes with a content sigh.

[her-lion.livejournal.com]

It hadn't been a terribly interesting (minus one certain mental breakdown) nor terribly productive day. The fact of the matter was it had been confusing. Even now, being hustled from his room, the vampire was perplexed. His last memory was being in town with Bella. How had he gotten back into his room? It was like his memory had a portion torn out of it - not as if he had forgotten, but as if the time never had existed.

Odd. (To put it lightly.)

The only suggestion that floated up to his mind is that he had somehow fallen asleep before that period (upon being in town) and the now (being back in the institute). But then again, that idea was just as prepostorous as believing his mind had gone out of time.

But in retrospect, this place permitted him to sleep.

He struggled to drop the issue, finding the passage of time was beyond his own grasp, in an ironic twist. His main concern was finding Bella, once again. And making sure something hadn't happened. The sleep had left him especially dull, and conversation with the nurse didn't serve much purpose.

Upon entering the music room - a room he was quite elated to see, despite the circumstances - Edward was disappointed to see no signs of a piano (of course, the piano wires), and the sole keyboard taken. He moved past the two seated at the keyboard, rummaging through the stores of instruments to decide on a rather plain looking recorder. It was the closest he'd find to a wind instrument, which was rather a favorite of his.

Recorder in hand, he snaked back around to gracefully dump himself in relief next to Bella, turning a questioning glance to her earpieces.

[his-singer.livejournal.com]

The arrival of Edward went unnoticed at first – she was too lost in her world of memories. Memories from when she hadn’t known about vampires, or Victoria, or Landel’s. When Forks had just been a living hell.

Of course, that all changed when she fell in love with Edward, but that much was obvious.

Humming the ending of the tune, Bella’s eyes slowly opened, and she stared up at the ceiling for a few moments before something coppery caught the corner of her eye. Turning her head, the teenager did not jump at the sight of her fiancé – instead, her heart did the jumping. Thump, thump, thump.

“Edward …” the smile broke across her lips and she plucked the head phones off of her ears as so she could fully take him in now, her heart starting to calm down. Why did it feel like a century since she had last seen her fiancé? She had no idea, but the sudden urge to want to touch him became unbearable, and she reached out to grasp gently onto his free hand. Her eyes caught sight of the recorder and she blinked, wincing from a childhood memory. “Haven’t seen one of those since second grade.”

[a-spider-can.livejournal.com]

While music had never really been his thing because he just didn't have the talent for it, Peter liked listening to it well enough. He doubted that the institute would have a wide selection, but his real reason for choosing this room over all the others was because it was the only one connected to the Sun Room that he hadn't been to yet.

He could have gone to the courtyard or the recreational field, since he hadn't seen those either, but he could hazard a guess as to what those were like, whereas the Music Room had him curious. It seemed kind of random, actually. What was the point of it? Did they think the music was going to heal them, or soothe their souls, or something equally ridiculous?

Peter knew he couldn't try to explain anything about Landel's without hitting a brick wall, so he just decided to go see for himself. The room was emptier than he'd been expecting, but he realized that with all the patients allowed to go wherever they wanted (and some of them stuck with visitors), it made sense.

The first thing he noticed were the instruments to the left. Someone was already playing the keyboard, and while there were others still free, Peter wasn't going to torture the other patients by giving a blow on the recorder or anything like that.

The CDs were more interesting (not to mention less likely to lead to embarrassment), so he headed in that direction.

[blacksustenance.livejournal.com]

[Mind if Brock harasses his favorite Spider? :P]

Music wasn't really Brock's thing. He liked listening to it, not trying to bang away at it himself; he'd be the first to admit that there were some things he just sucked at and being artistic was one of them. Symbiote or no symbiote. Just because he had his Other didn't mean he suddenly got good at anything and everything. Apparently whatever fake life the nurses here claimed he'd lived, some things remained the same - whether he was "Mark" or himself, he still liked to listen to music. "Enjoying some now", the nurse herding him said, "would be relaxing".

Yeah, if he was free and not trapped in some freak prison, then sure, it'd probably be relaxing.

But whatever, he wasn't in the mood to fight back. There was still a lot of their plate, with keeping an eye on their Spider and fending off Kasady highest on the list. And then there was trying to decide what he wanted to do for tonight. There was always the option of just kicking it back and sleeping in, getting his shared body the rest they both needed, but it somehow felt like he was wasting time. If they were going to hunt or kill or do anything the staff might not like (they had an unreasonably long list, in Brock's opinion), night was the only time to do it.

As he strolled into the room, he sensed Parker without seeing him at first. It was always kind of weird, that feeling. Like someone running a cold hand up your back, a shiver right up the center of your spine. Brock wasn't sure when he'd figured out that that meant the Spider was around, only that one day he realized that he just knew, and that it was probably one of those little adjustments the symbiote had bolted on. It took a little getting used to, seeing Parker from his eyes and from the symbiote's, but he thought he'd ended up relatively normal, all things considered.

Sneaking up on the Spider was so easy it was almost embarrassing. He came up behind Parker and, just barely, managed to keep his hands to himself this time.

"So how's our favorite Spider fitting in?" he said, a grin in his voice. He kept his voice down, even so. There was really no sense broadcasting Parker's double life right now.

[a-spider-can.livejournal.com]

While Peter jerked slightly, he didn't jump as much as he had the first few times Eddie had crept up behind him. That meant he was getting used to it, and he wasn't sure if that was good or bad. At least Eddie hadn't done any weird licking or whispering and even had the decency to be quiet with what he called him. It made him a little more willing to hear the other man out, if nothing else.

Peter turned toward the blond, forgetting the CDs for now. "I'm managing. Other than getting bothered more than I'm used to, it hasn't been too painful." A lot of that was a lie, but Peter wasn't going to unload on Eddie Brock of all people. Then again, there wasn't anyone else he could complain to, since he wasn't certain he was ready to trust Logan with that sort of thing.

It didn't mean Eddie was a viable option, though.

"How about you?" he asked, surprised by how normal that sounded. They were almost having a regular conversation, though he got the feeling it would steer itself into a new direction soon enough.

[kaerutokoro.livejournal.com]

As she edged closer to the other end of the Music Room, Rena noted with surprise there were at least two familiar people in the room. One was the man she had spoken to when she first encountered the bulletin board: John Trick. Arlene was the other person. Coincidently, they were in a conversation with each other so speaking with either was currently out of the question.

Instead, the girl began examining the music collection. At least, she thought it was the music collection. Rena could not recognize these circular disks.

[rappigs.livejournal.com]

And then there was a blessing that descended upon the girl...

...or, really, just a wacky rappig-loving emperor. Which some people might called a blessing. He'd been voted #1 Most Popular Emperor, after all! ..Out of one. But people loved him anyway.. except for those who knew him. Or really just the non-cute Jade. But who wanted to talk to a smelly guy like that, anyway? He was probably off stuffing his face some more in the cafeteria. Working on his figure. Pffff.

Peony had had a delicious lunch, spent mostly doodling pictures of rappigs and ogling the nurses.. but it'd been mostly uneventful. He was totally ready for some events! And some music! He wanted to celebrate good times!

And that was why he had stopped in the Music Room when his lovely little nurse had asked. Someone was playing a nice little ditty on the piano, which was rather relaxing, but he wanted something a little more upbeat.

So he strode up to the girl. "Ah, looks like a fresh little melody is searching for some beats to go along with. What are these?" He pointed at the discs in front of him.

[kaerutokoro.livejournal.com]

One could say something about today's surprises; this particular one, for instance, was bound for a pleasant descriptor. Rena always enjoyed meeting new people, especially the nice ones. And the gentleman here seemed to fit the adjective quite perfectly. Now, if only she could understand the first part of his greeting...

"Oh, umm, well," Rena began as she quickly slipped a 1996 rendition of Carmen back into the box. "To tell you the truth, I'm not sure what they are. They look like one of those old records but, umm, shiner?" A subpar description, but the girl had no other words. Hopefully, she wasn't coming off as clueless as she felt.

"Rena is pretty sure they have music on them," she continued with a frown, "but getting them to play... I don't know."

[icy-pole.livejournal.com]

Ami hid a smile as she watched Usagi hurry off to the sunroom, before walking slowly after the bubbly blonde. Passing through the sunroom, Ami headed into the much smaller music room. There were a few people already in here, but most were engaged in conversations already. It didn't bother her - Ami was quite happy to just sit quietly in a corner.

She wandered over to the stringed instruments, spotting a small, incredibly dusty lap harp. She gazed at it longlingly before stroking the wood of the harp. Dust came off in her hands. The harp reminded Ami of her Mercury Lyre. She took it down carefully, using her shirt to rub off most of the dust. Taking it to a nearby corner of the room, Ami plucked a few strings lovingly. It was horribly out of tune, but Ami didn't care. She couldn't really play except on her Mercury Lyre, but was comforted by the harp regardless.

[icy-pole.livejournal.com]

[Unknowingly waiting for SubZero]

[icy-demise.livejournal.com]

SubZero was very unhappily herded into the music room. 'Music is very soothing,'. He did not need to be soothed, he needed to get out of this place.

He glared at the nurse once she abandoned him in the music room, glaring at it's occupants. There was Arlene, talking to a man who SubZero recognized as the one that was feeling up Haku, he gave the man a very icy glare before turning towards the sound of some kind of horrible instrument being toyed with.

Ami... well, She was the only person not already talking with someone, so SubZero went over and sat next to her, irritated at being shoved into the music room. Even the arts and crafts room wouldn't have been this bad. "That thing sounds horrible."