Nightshift 34: Music Room

[tony-castaway.livejournal.com]

[from here]

The room was very dark, so the first thing Tony did was turn on his flashlight. The next thing was move aside so Kvothe could get inside.

The carpet was blue, the chairs red. It looked like a nice enough room, much nicer than even the disused library at Hackett House. He looked eagerly around, not even recognizing some of the forms of recordings. He spotted a box which seemed to have some simple rhythm instruments in it. He headed that way.

Comments

[sir-savien.livejournal.com]

Kvothe ducked into the room a moment after Tony and after a last glance back toward Takaya and the man with the claws he shut the door behind them. "I hope he knows what he's doing," he says just above a whisper. "Creating a distraction wasn't supposed to mean getting himself killed." Stepping away from the door, he flipped his light back on as well and looked around. There didn't seem to be much worthy of note, and certainly not a lute. His expression didn't change, but his heart sank.

[tony-castaway.livejournal.com]

"I didn't think he'd do that either. I hope he'll run now." Tony had gotten the impression at lunch time that Takaya liked to fight, though he didn't think anyone would like such overwhelming odds. Of course, they needed to get out of here too, but that was a worry for later, even if it was only 10 minutes later.

He pointed to the box with his light. "Do you see anything you like in there?" He was polite enough to offer Kvothe first pick though he desperately wanted whatever he could find for himself. Tony supposed that if he had to resort to a piece of paper taped to a comb in the future, he'd do what he could with it. But he wanted something that made actual music, like what he had in his head, so he could free up his magic.

[sir-savien.livejournal.com]

He glanced at the box and shook his head. "That's not really what I'm looking for." He starts around the room, looking with his flashlight, trying to find anything like what he wants. Nothing even remotely like a lute, though. It's a huge disappointment for him.

"Are you looking for anything in particular?" he asks over his shoulder as he explores the dark corners of the room. He could at least keep an eye out for that, since it didn't seem like he'd be finding much for himself in here.

[tony-castaway.livejournal.com]

"Well, what I know how to play is a harmonica." Tony set his flashlight on the floor beside the box and started looking through it by the light of Kvothe's. "But I will settle for anything portable that I can pick up in a few days." He didn't want to explain why unless he absolutely had to. News like that tended to make people freak out.

[sir-savien.livejournal.com]

Kvothe wouldn't, but he hadn't mentioned that about himself yet either. "I play the lute," he said, "but it doesn't look like there's anything even remotely similar to that around here." He abandoned the fruitless search and went back over to Tony, aiming the flashlight into the box so they could both get a better look at what there was to find.

[tony-castaway.livejournal.com]

Tony didn't see anything with strings, that was certain. "A lute? Really? Isn't that like a fat-bodied guitar?" He dug though the box, finally finding a few recorders. He looked them over and stuffed one under his shirt, securted by the band on the back of his pants. Unless there was an emergency he wanted to clean it before trying to play it.

He held the next best one to Kvothe. "Do you want a plastic flute?" Tony knew they weren't flutes, and he could hear Tia explaining it to him patiently from the time she read about the instruments in an orchestra. But the thing was definitely plastic. He hoped it could actually carry a tune. They seemed solid enough.

[sir-savien.livejournal.com]

He nodded. "I guess it is," he said. "I've played it all my life." He took the recorder and examined it curiously, he doesn't recognize the material at all. "Plastic?" He tapped on the flute with a fingernail then blew into it experimentally, playing a few unconnected notes. "What is this made of? I've never seen it before." And a new sort of material, that was a big deal to a guy with his sort of magic.

[tony-castaway.livejournal.com]

Tony wrinkled his nose. "Plastic. It's artificial. It can be bendy like rubber or tough like some kinds of wood, but it won't water log or rust and is surprisingly hard to break for something so light." He grinned, grateful for all the reading his sister made him do. That wasn't from one of Tia's informative little lectures.

"You'd think there was something with strings here, but I guess they're pretending us 'poor sick patients' will break them." Or denying the inmates better weapons. Tony'd heard on the streets of really terrible things an evil person could do with guitar or piano strings.

[sir-savien.livejournal.com]

Kvothe looked genuinely interested in the information. "It doesn't feel like it would be of much use for a more complicated instrument, but I suppose for something like this..." He blew a few more notes, getting a better idea of the sound.

"I suppose you're right, but it's still a disappointment." He would miss playing his lute while he was here. He still wanted to believe that this was temporary and that he'd be back at the University soon.

[tony-castaway.livejournal.com]

"Hey, I don't blame you." There didn't look like there was anything else interesting in the box. Just a few percussion toys, like maracas.

He stood back up and eyed the door. "I don't like the idea of going back out there. What about you?"

[sir-savien.livejournal.com]

"Well," Kvothe said slowly, "I don't like the idea of going back out there while the man with the claws is still around, I think he's really cracked. But if we stay in here, we're pretty much trapped until he leaves. And your friend is still out there with him." He frowned at the door. "Neither seems to be a very good option."

[tony-castaway.livejournal.com]

"They don't," Tony agreed. He crouched by the door, bowing his head and trying to catch a whisper of what was going on outside. He was beginning to suspect his hearing was duller than it had been. He normally wouldn't have had to concentrate so much just to hear something the next room over.

It sounded as if they were still fighting to him. He didn't like that at all. Didn't Takaya say he'd run after they were safe?

He shook his head. "I hope he doesn't need help out there."

[sir-savien.livejournal.com]

Kvothe tucked the recorder into his waistband and joined Tony by the door. "Should we look?" he asked quietly, trying to hear what was going on. "Maybe if we go back out he'll run with us." The more he thought, the more anxious he was getting though he tried not to let it show. "...If we don't, I don't know how we'll get out of here, unless that guy leaves." He felt trapped, and it was hard even then to supress the ingrained fight or flight response that had kept him alive in Tarbean.

[tony-castaway.livejournal.com]

"I don't know. Maybe." If anything else indicated Tony's uncertainty, it was that he didn't move to join Kvothe.

It was an idea, he supposed, but not one he liked. "Takaya's got sense," Tony said, though he had no idea if he did or not. "If it gets too bad for him, he'll run."

[sir-savien.livejournal.com]

"That's true," Kvothe said, "but that still leaves us trapped in here." He was getting more tense, and it probably showed. "Unless there's another way out? A window, maybe?" He looked around, aiming his flashlight at the walls without finding anything.