damned_institute | Day 39: Music Room

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Day 39: Music Room

Lunch had been fruitful. Celes had chosen not to eat, but that was fine enough for her; she’d eaten plenty at breakfast and it was not very good manners to eat while discussing war (for Celes, it’d always given her a bit of a stomachache), or plotting. Especially if one was in mixed company. Her nurse escorted her to the Music room, citing that her ‘sister’ had suggested that musical therapy would be good for her. Celes rolled her eyes. This was no music room, with their ‘electronic’ instruments; where were the violas and the harpsichords and phonographs? She’d been past this room before, but had never been interested enough to go into it.

The general sat down at the keyboard, staring at the odd device before prodding the buttons with a nail. On, off, rumba, tango, Caribbean (what in the world was ‘Caribbean?’), little numbers that changed the tone. It was the first time Celes wished that there was a real instrument before her, instead of this ridiculous thing. Still, it didn’t stop her from curiously stringing notes together with one hand, and the only song she could bring to mind was the Aria di Mezzo Carattere.

How dreadfully delightful.

[for Adel~]

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There was an underlying hint of something less than pleasant in the woman's voice, and Tobias' intense stare got just a little bit moreso, but he didn't offer up any commentary on the subject, instead giving up a neutral, "Sometimes. And yeah, I can imagine," and, at her request, offering up the player as soon as he disengaged the headphones from around his neck.

"You put the headphones-- the band thing with the soft things and the wires-- on, soft things over your ears, and it plays music from the recording on the CD." He hadn't bothered to pause it, so it was still playing the opening number (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZvKWlRvf-Q) as he handed it over.

Ophelia nodded, taking the player in her hands and lifting up the "headphones" toward her ears the boy had explained. To her surprise and (reluctantly admitted) delight, she could indeed hear the music coming from the soft pads on the ends of the band. It was like being surrounded by an invisible orchestra, and the style of the singing reminded her of the storytelling minstrels she sometimes heard when arriving in human towns. She still had no idea how the device was doing it, but it was a surprisingly pleasant experience.

Before she became too overwhelmed, Ophelia remembered what she had intended to do in the first place. When she was sure the nurses were satisfied in her choice of activities and not looking, she moved the recorder behind her thigh out of their line of sight. Quickly, she lifted it and slipped it under the waistband of her pants, the bulbous top holding it in place under her loose shirt. She wasn't particularly worried if the boy noticed or not. It wasn't like she intended to use the broken recorder against him. Yet.

When she was done, she removed the headphones and returned the player to the boy. "That is remarkable, I must say. I'm curious to know how that works," said Ophelia, for once not entirely lying. "My name is Ophelia, by the way," she added, reassuming her standard false smile. "What's yours, young man?"

[Though I must say, Tobias unknowingly has awesome taste in random CDs. XD *loves Into the Woods*]

"Astor," Tobias said, rather pleasantly, without any particular hint of the lie in his voice or demeanor. (Unconcious body language didn't tend to stick around after a few years in feathers.) It was the same name he'd given everyone so far today, given that it was the name the nurses called him by; there was no need to be spreading around his real identity.

"And... I'm not entirely sure how it works." He laughed, sheepishly, without really smiling to match the sounds. "There's information stored on the disk, and the player translates it into sounds, and the sounds are played by small speakers-- little vibrating things that imitate noises-- in the headphones." He shrugged. "Thats about as much as I know."

Ophelia nodded, noting the information in her mind more for getting a sense of how this world's technology worked in general than for the sake of knowing about the CD player specifically.

"You come from a world like this one, then," she said, more of a statement of fact than a question. "Much, much different from the world I hail from, I'd imagine. How does life go along outside of places like this?" she asked, sitting down side-saddle on the arm of the chair, now also apparently oblivious (except not really) to the idea of personal space. She continued, her eyelids lowering slightly but her expression not faltering otherwise. "Much safer, is it? Less worrying for one's life day in and day out, wondering if the monsters are coming for you next?"

"Something like this one, at least," he agreed, blandly, unconsciously edging away from Ophelia's invasion of his personal bubble (which was slightly bigger than the normal ones) until he was pressed fairly firmly against the far arm of the chair. He didn't seem to notice. "Haven't been here long enough to judge how much alike, though I can't say home had virgin-eating birds."

"So I noticed on the board," Ophelia said with a slightly more uneasy chuckle. If she were back in her own world, she would have no reason to fear such beasts any more than she feared everyday yoma. Here, however, if such birds were as formidable as people made them sound, her virginity was going to be a bit more of a problem than she would have liked it to be. She could only really hope that she didn't run across said beasts, because she was fairly certain that even if she desired intimate contact with another person (which she most certainly didn't), the hidden, more hideous parts of her body were sure to put others off.

"In any case, you didn't answer my question. What is life generally like for people who live in a world such as this?" she asked, getting back onto her original point.

"Yeah, not the nicest thing to hear about on your first day here, is it? Or whatever day you're on." He smiled awkwardly back.

"In a world like this? Well... it depends on where you live, and what you do for a living. Where I grew up, everywhere was pretty safe, to an extent. No real fights for survival, food available year-round without much fuss, lots of law enforcement that didn't abuse their power-- at least, not most of the time-- and general peace." He shrugged. "But then, I grew up in one of the more technologically advanced countries. Other places will have less of some of those nice things like peace and prosperity."

That was... vague, but something like accurate.

"Third," she responded, letting herself slip back into the more comfortable mode she'd been in before Astor had brought up the virgin-eating birds. "And let me tell you, if you haven't noticed already, the days just seem to crawl by here. Sometimes I could swear I've been here for months instead of mere days. And then the nights have the nerve to seem much too short to get anything worthwhile done in."

Ophelia nodded, only mildly interested in the description of the world. Again, it was good to know for reference's sake, but it was boring compared to the life she knew. At least, until the last point he mentioned. "Oh, and what do you know of these places where peace and prosperity does not reign?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. No matter what the circumstances, she did so enjoy hearing tales of war and violence.

The day had seemed to drag a bit, but Tobias had thought it was because of his... unpleasant situation playing tricks on his mind. It's got to have been four or five hours, now, at least, he thought, and then closed his eyes for a moment. No, morbid wasn't going to help. He had to keep it together, at least for a while, until he had some time to get his thoughts all straightened out.

"I hadn't really noticed yet, but if they can do time travel, they can probably mess with how the days and nights run," he said, sensibly.

As to her question, he deadpanned, "Well, they generally have more war and poverty," the faintest hint of dry humor in his voice.

Ophelia nodded at Astor's comment about time travel. "True enough. From what my bulletin board helper has relayed to me, many here complain about time flowing differently for different people. The most common complaints come from those for whom night seems to end extremely early compared to others," she elaborated, neglecting to mention that night also had a habit of ending right when one didn't want it to. She didn't know how Landel did it, but she suspected that he kept a close eye on specific patients at night, and selected the worst possible end-of-night cliffhangers for those he chose to watch.

At Astor's second comment, she had to admit that she was amused. The boy had a sense of humour that appealed to her, one with just the right amount of sarcasm to it. "Really, you don't say," she responded with about the same dry tone, the sides of her lips curling up a little further. "Perhaps you'd like to expand on that in a bit more detail? Pardon my curiosity, but in my world, I was affiliated with a military-like organization. Naturally, that makes me curious to know just how humans have decided to go about slaughtering one another in this supposedly more advanced world."

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Day 39: Music Room

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[[Oh my god, I was just watching Into the Woods clips earlier today. STOP READING MY MIND! XD]]

[Ahahaha, really? XD I was just looking for a overture-less musical that Tobias might grab. :D ]

Re: [Ahahaha, really? XD I was just looking for a overture-less musical that Tobias might grab. :D ]

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[slowpost is slow. ^^;; ]

[ARGH, LJ ate my post! D:< Also, sorry for the triple re-post.]]