WHO: Marley Rose & Kvothe WHAT: Hanging Out, Rehearsing WHEN: Wednesday Afternoon WHERE: Outside the house she lives in with Klaus and Co. WARNINGS: TBD STATUS:: Gdoc'ed, Incomplete
Today, Marley had invited Kvothe to come over to her house to rehearse. The drama director was still trying to work on choreography with the dancers and he wouldn’t be getting to any of the scenes with her and Kvothe today. In her mind, it therefore made no sense to stick around the school when they wouldn’t be getting any rehearsal time in there.
After letting Klaus know that she would be having a friend over, she went outside to make sure they had a nice practice area. She didn’t want to disturb her new family (?) by practicing in the house right now, but she figured that once it started getting colder, she could always invite Kvothe up to her room to work since it was so big. It’s not like anyone would think that she was inviting Kvothe into her room for anything besides practicing.
She had found a table and chairs and had pulled them into the yard beneath a large tree where there hung a long forgotten tire swing. On the table were snacks and beverages for their throat – because Caroline was awesome – and now Marley was sitting on top of the tire and running through her lines while she waited for Kvothe to arrive.
It was nice having a friend like Kvothe; someone who understood and was as dedicated to music as she was. It felt natural when they were practicing their lines and they sometimes could lapse into side conversations that had nothing to do with the play, and that felt natural, too. She never felt at a loss for words when they were talking and she never felt overwhelmed by his presence when they were rehearsing.
Oklahoma! was an intense musical with so many layers, but it didn’t cause her the stress that doing Grease back home had caused. She didn’t have a popular cheerleader trying to destroy any bit of self-confidence in herself and she didn’t have Ryder and Jake wanting to punch each other out in some kind of competition.
Marley let the tire swing drift in the light breeze while she started working on another one of her solo numbers.
“ Out of my dreams and into your arms I long to fly. I will come as evening comes to woo a waiting sky…” It was a beautiful song and Marley’s voice managed to portray the love and vulnerability that Laurie was feeling. “ When the mist is low and stars are breaking through, Then out of my dreams I'll go into a dream with you…”
***
Kvothe was tired of being here. It wasn’t all bad, no. He enjoyed playing in the tavern, and he enjoyed rehearsals. He liked the fact that Fela was here; one of his few friends from home, especially since she seemed to have gotten over her crush on him, and turned her eye toward Simmon.
What he didn’t like was being so…obscure. At home, everyone knew his name, even if they’d never met him. They’d heard the stories of his daring deeds - stories that often he had been the one to perpetuate. He’d been incredibly successful at creating his own legend, creating himself into the person he wanted to be and completely burying the person that he was.
He was Kvothe the Bloodless. Kvothe the Arcane. Stories of him grew greater and greater as they spread through the Four Corners of Civilization, and he always enjoyed when one of the stories he sent out came back to him grander and more fantastical than even he had sent it out.
Of course, all of the stories were true, at least to an extent. Those were the longest lived stories, after all, the most enduring legends. The ones that began with a grain of truth that grew like a seed.
But here? Nobody knew him. Nobody told tales of his daring, or sang songs of his deeds. He was just a boy...a boy expected to go to school, a boy expected to behave himself and do as he was told. Even Harry Dresden, who he had thought would be an excellent guardian, only wanted to crush him and tell him what he couldn’t do.
Kvothe approached Marley’s home with a sigh, crossing his arms across his chest for a moment before taking a step forward and knocking on the door. He liked Marley. She seemed nice enough, and he respected her acting skill and her lovely voice. He’d seen very little of that since he’d arrived in this town, and it was nice to have someone with whom he had shared interests. He liked to believe that they were even becoming friends, although friendship had never come easy to him.
He held his feelings to himself; it was true. He was uncomfortable with sharing things about his past - he absolutely refused to do so. That was a part of him that was his and his alone, things that he’d never even told Denna. Of course, there was a great deal that he’d never told Denna; that was, in a sense, the basis of their relationship. He held to his secrets and she held to hers, and there would be no pressure from any direction.
Coming inside, he heard Marley singing and smiled a bit. He found her outside, on a tire swing, and leaned against the tree as he smiled at her.