InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "I haven't slept in six years."

theprettyone (ex_thepretty258) wrote in labyrinth_rpg,
@ 2009-03-12 06:06:00

Entry tags:

complete, day two, gabrielle, yaten kou

WHO: Yaten Kou and OTA
WHAT: Music calms even the snarkiest
WHEN: Day 2, early afternoon
WHERE: Out and about where ever the music is
WARNINGS: Eh, I'll say PG-13.
STATUS: Complete

Yaten woke up in a bad mood. Which was not, to be fair, particularly surprising. He was not a morning person at the best of times, and for some reason this morning he was having a hell of a time figuring out where he was. Strange hotel room, uncomfortable bed... But the Three Lights were done with their tour? Still blinking sleep from his eyes Yaten got up and was about to bang on one of the walls to ask Seiya what was going on when he remembered where he was. Suddenly fully awake he spat a curse and stomped back to his bed, pulling the covers up over his head. No, this wasn't happening, it was all just a bad dream.

However, even Yaten can't stay in bed forever, and restlessness drove him up, dressed and out. Best, he supposed, to explore this place, maybe find a way home or something. Unfortunately, everything about this place seemed designed to make his explorations as difficult as possible. He got lost twice and had to backtrack. He kept tripping over those little goblin creatures, who always seemed to appear right underfoot. There were just so many people and stranger creatures, all running around and getting in his way. It felt like he was making no progress at all towards anything, when he suddenly heard music. All thoughts of annoyance gone he paused, and then followed in the direction the sound was coming from.

He found a largish tent inhabited by more of the strange goblins, all playing absolutely wonderful instruments. Some he recognized; a lute there, a lap harp in the corner, but some he didn't. His eyes, however, were drawn to the gleaming light wood harpsicord that stood in the back corner. He wandered over to it, and found himself standing behind the goblin playing just as the current song finished.

"Sir want to play?" the goblin asked, looking up at him. Without thinking too much about the oddity of the situation, Yaten nodded. The creature slipped off the bench and he sat down, his fingers gently caressing the keys. The room was silent for a moment, and he started to play, just a melody at first, the chorus of Nagareboshi He, the song he knew better than anything else, figuring it would be the easiest to adapt to the unfamiliar instrument. Still, all keyboard instruments played similarly enough that it didn't take long for him to start adding in the harmonies, and even start singing, very softly. Wrapped up in the music, he didn't realize when some of the other musicians started playing, adding their harmonies into his. Only when the song was over did he look up, surprised to discover he had more than goblins in audience.

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bardictraveller
2009-03-14 11:17 pm UTC (link)

Gabrielle was doing better. At first, she'd been alone. But then she'd met Robin, who was very nice, and she felt like she'd made a friend. On top of that, her best friend Xena had shown up as well, and then she'd spoken to Helena. This would be just like everywhere else, where she friends quickly with lots of people. She was glad that, even here, she could do that.

After leaving Helena, she wandered. There was so much to see, all of it rather familiar to her, really. This place was much more like home than Mirage had ever been. It pleased her, and she simply walked around all over the place. Many sights to be seen, food to be snagged... she really should bring some back to Xena, though. Not that the warrior woman was incapable of taking care of herself. But Gabrielle liked to do it.

She had grabbed a loaf of bread and some cheese, and was meaning to go back to her friend and feed her, when she heard something. It was very faint, but intruiging to her bard's soul. She hesitated, and then was drawn that direction. Xena could wait just a few minutes longer, and she wanted to check out that intruiging song. It didn't take long to find the tent, with the strange goblin players and... someone else.

She smiled and listened to the whole thing, and then clapped enthusiastically when the music stopped. "Oh, by the Gods! That was beautiful!" She was very excited by the whole thing. "Thank you for sharing that!"

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ex_thepretty258
2009-03-15 01:26 pm UTC (link)

Yaten blinked a few times to cover his confusion. He hadn't realized there was someone else listening. Still, he could be a gracious performer, when the mood took him.

"Thank you" he said, standing up and coming out from around the harpsichord. He bowed, giving the girl his best pop idol smile, only slightly ironically. "I hadn't realized I'd attracted an audience outside of these..." he gestured to indicate the goblins "folks here."

He looked back at the harpsichord, feeling more than a little homesick. "It sounded better with Seiya and Taiki" he commented sadly.

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bardictraveller
2009-03-15 02:59 pm UTC (link)

Gabrielle's smile was wide, and completely sincere. She loved music. Her own preformance style was much more involved with telling stories, but she could definitely bring out a very genuine appreciation for other forms, as well. And he had done it very well.

She grinned at him, pleased by the bow, and even curtseyed back. "Oh, I hope you didn't want to be alone. I wasn't trying to intrude, I just heard the lovely music." She looked around at the goblins, and made a bit of a face. At least he probably wasn't annoyed, since the odd creatures were already there.

But her smile faded as she looked at him. He was missing home. She tilted her head to the side and found a chair nearby. "Tell me about them?" Not only did she love to tell stories, she also loved hearing them.

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ex_thepretty258
2009-03-15 03:16 pm UTC (link)

Yaten looked at the girl sharply. Why did she want to know? It wasn't any of her business anyway. He sighed. She was just trying to be nice, it wasn't her fault this whole situation was beyond messed up. He flopped down in a chair, not quite looking at the woman.

"Seiya and Taiki are... were... anyway, my family. We're not blood related, but we've always been together." He looked up, not really seeing the inside of the tent, his mind casting back to everything they'd been through. "When we were on earth we formed an idol band called the Three Lights. Wildly popular and all, honestly a real pain. But it let us get our music out there, like the song I was playing. We were looking for our princess..." His voice trailed off and he seemed to come back to where he was. "Found her, and... stuff. We were about to go home when I was grabbed here. Why do you care?"
The last was said with heavier than normal snark

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bardictraveller
2009-03-16 12:43 am UTC (link)

Gabrielle had been travelling with Xena for six years. She was pretty much completely immune to sharp looks. Not that she'd ever been all that good at noticing them, to be honest. She just tended to not be that way. So she just waited, breathlessly anticipating the story ahead.

"Oh, I see!" She nodded as he explained. Though if he hadn't, she wouldn't have taken offense, probably. She had quite a thick skin, really. "A band, really?" She was interested, but not to the point of a crazed fan or anything. In all honesty, it didn't mean as much to her as it would to someone from the 20th or 21st century.

"Well, I'm glad you found your princess!" She didn't completely understand what that meant, but that was okay. It sounded like a good thing. "Why do I care? Because I love hearing stories!" She tilted her blonde head to the side. "I'll tell you a story, if you want. What would you like to hear?"

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ex_thepretty258
2009-03-16 06:59 am UTC (link)

Even Yaten can't stay snarky forever, though lords know he's tried. Right now though, he felt just tired. Too much had happened over the past few days. He sighed and ran a hand back through his hair.

"Found her, lost her, had her brought back, and then stolen here" he said quietly, thinking about Kakyuu. He'd just disappeared, no warning. What must they be thinking right now? He stared down at his hands for a long moment. Of all the times to have gone missing.

He looked up at Gabrielle, and forced a small smile. "A storyteller eh? Know anything with a good happy ending?"

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bardictraveller
2009-03-17 01:02 am UTC (link)

Gabrielle felt a great deal of sympathy for him suddenly. He looked exhausted. She couldn't blame him, really. Just from what he'd told her, he'd been through a whole lot of things. Of course he was tired, and then to be pulled to a new world on top of it all!

"Oh, that's so sad..." Heedless of the danger that she could be putting herself into by touching a grumpy stranger, she put a sympathetic hand on his shoulder for just a second. "I hope you're able to get back to your family, then."

She brightened up a little as he asked his question. "I know many stories, but most are meant to teach a lesson. Usually it's something like 'Don't mess with the Gods, or you'll get in trouble." She laughed softly, and tried to think of a good story. "There is one about how Athens was made, it has a happy ending. Would you like to hear it?"

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	ex_thepretty258 2009-03-17 06:25 am UTC (link)
	Yaten reflexively shrugged off the comforting hand. He didn't want sympathy, or at least, he didn't want to admit to wanting sympathy. Still, he was rather intrigued by the storyteller, though he did his best to hide it. "Athens? As in... Greece?" He gave her a small half smile. "Sure. What's the story?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

bardictraveller
2009-03-17 04:40 pm UTC (link)

Gabrielle felt slightly stung when he shrugged her hand away, but she got over it quickly. After all, she excused him, he had been through a whole lot. It made sense that he wouldn't want strangers touching him. She should have thought of that before.

"Well!" She quickly cheered up at the prospect of telling a story. "It goes like this. When the city of Athens was built, it was the most beautiful city anyone had ever seen. Many of the Gods and Goddesses wanted their names on such a gorgeous city, but eventually it came down to just two of them."

She paused for a second, mostly for dramatic tension, and then continued. "The two were Poseidon, Lord of the Ocean, and Athena, Goddess of Wisdom and Warfare. The people of the city decided the only fair way to decide this was to have each of them give a gift. Poseidon went first. He hit the ground with his Trident, and what do you think happened? A spring bubbled up, out of nowhere! Now, this seemed like a pretty good gift, right?"

She smiled, pausing once more to increase the drama of the moment. "But it wasn't a good gift at all! He had called sea water, which was completely useless to drink. Athena, however, just waved her hand and a olive tree sprouted. It provided food, oil, wood... well, there was no doubt who won that one! For all his power, Poseidon couldn't compete with the simple gift of Athena. And that's why the city is called Athens."

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