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

[quickdrawbkiddo.livejournal.com]

Beatrix snorted. "Like hell it's a pretty name," she stated and rolled her eyes. "Family name."

"I like classic rock, a little bit of 80s hair bands as well as the koto," she said offhandedly. She managed to find a Guns and Roses album and flipped it over to read the back a bit before putting it back and standing up to her whole six feet of height. "And you?"

[i-slay-giants.livejournal.com]

Jack shrugged. "I've heard a bit of everything. It depends on my mood."

Classic rock. Maybe they could talk Stones or Zepplin. She was holding a Guns and Roses album--perhaps that could work too. "Hey, which one is that?" He motioned to it. "Some of their stuff wasn't too bad. Before Axel went off the deep end, anyhow."

He scratched the back of his neck. "'Welcome to the Jungle' has a pretty sweet guitar riff, if nothing else."

[quickdrawbkiddo.livejournal.com]

"Appetite for Destruction," the Bride replied. "Not bad, but I prefer Use Your Illusion I."

She shrugged and leaned back against the wall, crossing her arms at her waist after adjusting the thick bandages on her right hand. "Jungle does have some nice guitar work as well as Paradise City. My favorite is November Rain, though. It's a treat to hear in concert."

[i-slay-giants.livejournal.com]

"Can't say I've had the honor." the Fable stroked his chin some more. "But I'm gonna take you at your word and assume you would know these things." He winked and crouched down beside Beatrix. "So, what else do they got in this box of wonder, eh? Anything by Robert Plant?"

[quickdrawbkiddo.livejournal.com]

"None that I saw," Beatrix replied. "The selection is worse than that of a used cd store in a college town."

She knew way too much about music thanks to Billy's record store, her record store, but she didn't feel like drawing on her knowledge from her attempted escape from her reality. "What do you like to do for fun, John?" She brushed her hair back from her face as she spoke, moderate curiosity in her tone.

[i-slay-giants.livejournal.com]

It was still too early in their 'relationship' for Jack to reply with, "You. All night long." Or at any rate, too early and he was too sober, though he would make that Limey bastard pony up his whiskey somehow.

Instead, he settled on a more generic response. "I like to take chances, babe. Dangerous chances."

Oh man, was he ever suave. She was probably beside herself with feminine curiousity.

[quickdrawbkiddo.livejournal.com]

Beatrix barely kept herself from snorting and laughing out loud. This man was so hilariously bad at picking women up, she wondered if he'd ever gotten anyone other than one he could afford to lay with him. Nevermind, there were women pathetic enough to fall for this shit. Regardless, the Bride was highly amused.

Her lip quirked in a bit of a smirk. "Dangerous chances only really come to dangerous men," she replied. "Are you a bad boy, John?"

[i-slay-giants.livejournal.com]

Jack ran a hand through his hair. "I may have been called a bad boy once or twice. How about you, Arlene?" He winked at the Bride. "Are you a good little girl or a naughty little girl?"

And if she said "naughty", everyone knew it was only right to "punish" the naughty...

[quickdrawbkiddo.livejournal.com]

This time she did laugh. How predictable of a response.

"I'm no little girl, John," she said, her voice dropping just a little. "But being a good girl is rather boring."

[i-slay-giants.livejournal.com]

"I agree with you," the Fable beamed. "In my experience, good people lead dull lives. Not that I'm saying it's any good to go about aimlessly hurtin' folks either, but there's no shame in doing what you want when you want and doing things that might not be smiled upon in church."

He paused and arched an eyebrow. "If you know what I mean."

[quickdrawbkiddo.livejournal.com]

"Ah, a man of loose morals," Beatrix said with a bit of coy smile.

"I care little what the church thinks. I gave that up years ago after I got involved with my little girl's father and they kept telling me I was going to burn for a million years in hell." She smirked. "At least I'd be warn."

[i-slay-giants.livejournal.com]

A mother. That wasn't as much of a turn off as it might have been, though it did kill the mood just a wee bit. Jack had slept with mothers before and fathered his own children, but motherhood did make a woman seem a bit less...

Desirable? Creative in bed? Maidenly?

Oh well, beggars couldn't be choosers. He was determined to get laid and his shotgun method required that he ask as many eligable ladies as possible and one would eventually say yes. "How old is your daughter, Arlene? It doesn't seem fair that she be left all alone while her mother is locked up in a looney bin."

[quickdrawbkiddo.livejournal.com]

"Five," Beatrix replied, her smirk staying in place, though the look in her eyes was a little colder, a little more disturbing as she met the man's eyes directly.

"She is not alone - they have her. Fair? Fair is what it will be when I pay them back in kind," she said, her tone cool and smooth. John had just stirred the assassin inside out of her slumber.

[i-slay-giants.livejournal.com]

Jack arched an eyebrow. "'They'? You mean the kid's dad?"

This was going turn out to be one of those ugly custody battles that Jack always saw plastered on the news. Ah, well. Let her vent about it for a bit. Maybe he'd come across as "considerate" and "on her wavelength" so they could go back to flirting with each other.

[quickdrawbkiddo.livejournal.com]

"I mean the assholes that have us held captive. My daughter was with me when they captured me. How, I have no fucking clue," The Bride replied. "And certainly not her father. He's quite dead, thank you."

[i-slay-giants.livejournal.com]

Jack hadn't yet run into any of the younger patients, so the idea that the facility would have anything below the whiney-adolescent age group seemed preposterous. What could they do with a child? Raise it to be their loyal soldier? Actually, that didn't sound too far fetched...

"Really? They took a five year old?"

[quickdrawbkiddo.livejournal.com]

The Bride's eyes flashed in cold anger though there was a bit of a controlled insane look to them.

"If they didn't take her, they've killed her."

[i-slay-giants.livejournal.com]

This wasn't going the way he had wanted it to at all. Arlene seemed all pissed off about her daughter and blind to the fact that a hot and virile man was trying to get her to go to bed with him. It couldn't be helped though, Jack knew. A mother's way or some shit lik that.

"I don't think they would have killed her," he said, lying through his teeth. Why wouldn't they kill her daughter? "I mean, they haven't killed any of us, have they?"

[quickdrawbkiddo.livejournal.com]

"No they haven't," Beatrix replied, the cold fury going away. She leaned back against the wall. "So I'll find her. At night since they seem to keep us segregated from the children during the day."

"I just need to find the right people to temporarily ally with." Other than the teenagers she'd semi-claimed as her wards.

[i-slay-giants.livejournal.com]

Ah, there was an opening. Jack would play this cool. After all, this chick looked a bit like Uma Thurman and he'd love to get with that.

'I totally did Uma Thurman,' He would tell others upon his escape.

They wouldn't believe him, sure, but if he could visualize Arlene, he'd have a much easier time recounting his tale than if he were making a woman up on the spot. Hey, it'd be something to talk about.

"I'll help ya," He offered, taking a step towards the Bride. "Assuming you could use a guy like me."

Suave.

[quickdrawbkiddo.livejournal.com]

The Bride's eyes were hooded as she assessed the man moving closer to her.

"That depends, John," she replied. "What talents do you have that a woman like me could use?"

[i-slay-giants.livejournal.com]

"Well," The Fable began, "For starters, I have my convictions. And I'll always help a beautiful woman in need of assistance. Truly, nothing is more important than the wellbeing of a child."

If Beatrix had been away of Jack's own deadbeat father tendancies, it wouldn't have sounded anywhere near convincing, though Jack rarely did anyhow.

"And I'm not too shabby in a fight, Sweetheart."

[quickdrawbkiddo.livejournal.com]

Her facial expression did not change. "I'll pretend I actually believe the first half of that. As for the second half, are you trained in any manner or just a... well-meaning street fighter?"