milliways_bar | (no subject)

A true dragon, then, only enforced further by the lack of Truespeech. Still, it made me uneasy, for all that the littling seemed happy with them. "Forgive me, then. My reaction was uncalled for." Again, Milliways strangeness caught me by surprise. A dragon that wasn't sentient, that was truly a beast! It was unnerving, but I put myself through the Discipline of Calm that I would not react in such a way again. "If I wished to meet this Rachel, how would I do so?

"Well met, then, Sskwhisghaar. You are both skilled in the use of this guitar?"

Toki smiled, though it was haunted, and more than slightly sad. "Rachel don't really comes around too often no mores. She's goings to be dying." He started chewing on his thumbnail, eyes shivering with silvery tears that started to well up. He blinked them away and looked up at the blond. "He's de most skilled guitarist in our world, fastest crown champion. I's de second most."

He picked up his Flying V and steadied his hands, taking a deep breath and sighing it out. "Skwisgaar, you starts." He whispered to the Swede.

Once he'd gotten Pompeii settled, which didn't take long, since the tiny!dragon was clinging to his shirt, he hoisted his guitar, shrugging and tossing his head to flick his hair out of his eyes, stretching his fingers before starting in on one of their newest songs, one of the ones that was still getting the kinks worked out of it.

I had not smelt seawater from a Gedri before, though my father had explained their meaning to me. I feared these tears were in sadness, not joy, and I stood in Regret, saying nothing.

Not only were they musicians, they were the best of their world. I settled into the snow to listen to their music.

I can safely say it was like nothing I had ever heard before.

Toki's tears had dried before they even fell, and his rhythmic harmony in combination with Skwisgaar's melody sung out epic tales of barren winters and snow-covered mountains. All of the brunette's emotion flowed into his music, and even though there were no words, the music itself painted enough of a picture on its own.

The two of them had power. Perhaps the dragon could feel a shift in the wind as the two played, as even the weather started to shift, and bend its attention to them. Without the drummer, vocalist, and bassist there, the best the two could summon up was a minor gust of wind, or a blast of heat, whichever suited the song. But what was peculiar about them, was the fact that the power of the music was growing with each bar of the song, each nuance gradually gaining more strength to whatever magic they were weaving.

They were oblivious to it.

Skwisgaar smiled then, grim as ever, arching a brow, mostly at Toki, but also at their audience, his fingers moving just a little faster, caught up in the music the same way it always caught him up, urging him on just a little more, a little harder, a little faster.

They were indeed oblivious to the fact that they were the source of the power, but that didn't stop them from being immune to the power itself. Skwisgaar tossed his head again, usually it was when he started playing this hard that his hair caught fire, and he wasn't about to have that happen so soon.

It was certainly a winter song, just as cold, just as biting as a blizzard and somehow full of snow-flurries as well.

I did not dare join in. I saw where their music went in a way you only see with true masters, but there was more to it. I felt their music as cold against my armour, as though I had been flying where the air was thin and razor sharp. Even the greatest of the singers of the Kantri never achieved such.

I stood in Awe.

When the song was done, Toki gave another little bow to the dragon with a small smile creeping back onto his lips. He turned to Skwisgaar and raised one brow. It was wordless Guitarist-code for 'I think he liked it.'

Toki suddenly felt something he hadn't felt in many years of being a professional musician. It was just like the first time he'd ever played a successful show, with the audience roaring with applause and chanting out the band's name, echoing in his mind.

Only this was an audience of one. An audience that was the size of their entire living room and then some, with wings and scales and piercing eyes that felt like a thousand eyes on him at once.

It was the most important audience he'd had in years. He felt excited, and almost awestruck, himself.

Skwisgaar's smile wasn't quite as grim now, though it was still just a little edgy, he felt buzzed, the way he usually did after their third or fourth encore, after the crowd was worked into an actual frenzy.

He gave another little bow himself, smirking faintly as Pompeii's head peeked up out of his jacket, petting the tiny!dragon's head gently, voice quiet, "Ja, dat's is was just daddies play some musics time."

I was still standing in Awe. I said nothing. What could I say? I had never experienced anything like that before. How...what was that?

"That...I have heard naught like that for as long as I hath lived," I managed at last. "Truly, that was incredible."

The words of the dragon astounded Toki, and he may have visibly shivered and hopped excitedly, though he would deny it later if asked.

"You thinks so? I, that is, we? We're honored. To knows dat a dragon would likes our music is.. Is...?" He turned to Skwisgaar, hoping the Swede would know how to finish the sentence. He was at a loss for words, himself.

Skwisgaar was more than a little surprised at this himself, blinking, still petting Pompeii's head, "...is fuG#sing metal is what."

Going by his tone, as well as his equally awestruck expression was a clue that 'fuG#sing metal' was the highest of praise.

"My Kindred art singers; music is part of the fibre of our beings, but I know of none who can do what thou just did. Not only could I see thine music, but felt as well." It was nearly incomprehensible, and a shade frightening. That was only with their tools.

What if they had sung?

But. Still. "Would thou play again?"

The singing wasn't done by either guitarist, though it was likely that both could sing. They just didn't.

Toki smiled and nodded, "Alright, we could plays another song. How~'s about Yardwolfves, Skwisgaar? Is a warm song." He turned to the large, bronze lizard and smiled, "Is abouts our fans. We don't usually likes dem at all, but... you's an exception."

He nodded at that, giving Pompeii's head a nudge to tuck the tiny dragon back down into his jacket, so that the critter wouldn't get in the way while he was playing.

"Ja, dat's is probably beings a goods kind of songs to plays on next." It would take a little while for the dragon's praise to sink in, Skwisgaar's ego tended to get in the way of that sort of thing.

"A warm song would be nice, yes," I agreed, tempering my Awe some. The chill from the previous song was fading, but still slightly present.

Toki started with the rhythm, his face gone blank as his hair fell across his shoulders. It already was a vicious sound, like the sound of a wolf pack's feet crunching in the leaves of a forest. On the hunt. On the trail of some scent, careful measures of music for the careful footfalls of canines.

That grim smile was back, head tilted forward just a little, nodding as he played. Where Toki got the footsteps and the movement of the pack, Skwisgaar got the howls and the teeth.

His smile just spread as they both got to give way to the chase, this was, by and large, his favorite part of the song.

Such a different way of hunting than I was used to. I felt myself becoming lost in the chase, the thrill of the hunt, the feel of others around me.

We Kantri tend to be solitary hunters. This sense of pack was strange and unnerving. The teeth and claws, however, less so. A small part of me was relieved that I had already eaten for the week.

The hunt was more for the kill, it seemed, not for the food, as was typical for wolves. These were spoiled, feral, fierce wolves which were on the grounds of the musician's mansion, there as the world's wildest guard dogs.

Had there been lyrics to accompany, the entire song would have tied in the wolves, the wind, the wild, and the human element. The lyrics were in second person, present tense, telling You that You were being chased.

But the guitars were the first and foremost part of the song. The song had been written around the two guitarists' playing.

The wolves struck! They struck down the helpless, puny prey, which was powerless against the pack. The shuffling of paws around the body, their excited jumping and riling over each other for the taste of blood was almost tangible.

Skwisgaar's grin was just a little more toothy than strictly necessary, tossing his head again to flick his hair out of the way, though it could very easily have been a moment of lock-jawed throat-ripping, if he'd been decidedly more canine.

It was still unnerving, however, just a little bit, mostly because of how feral he did look.

I wasn't certain I liked the violence of this song. It was so visceral, and I wondered if all wolves hunted this way. The ones I had seen before didn't seem to, but it is not as though I can speak with them. Perhaps Spoon would know and I could ask him the next time we spoke?

But that would not occur to me until later. Now it was blood and excitement, and I could feel my Fire growing, the urge to roar in triumph. A small part of me urged me to put myself once more through the Discipline of Calm, but I couldn't. Not yet.

The younger guitarist looked up at the dragon, his own eyes catching the light of the bar in an almost preternatural fashion, as they finished the song, both guitars howling, almost uncannily like the animals they portrayed.

They'd spent months perfecting that song, and Toki was proud of it. He took one more bow and turned off his amp, sitting down on it and smiling over to Skwisgaar. There was that unspoken language again, body language of 'we're DAMN good'.

Skwisgaar was still smiling, though it wasn't as sharp, not as knife-edged as it had been, perching himself on his own amp, turning it off as well and just picking away at something, as he was prone to doing.

"Dat songs is always giving me ons de goods kind of tired." He said with a nod, smiling as Pompeii peered up from under his collar, tiny copper head straining to turn over backwards and see what he was doing. And it was true, he always felt played out when the song was over, like he just wanted to go find someplace warm to curl up and sleep.

I was still for a moment after the song, standing slightly in Triumph, still feeling the urge to violence and roar as I had felt the cold from the other.

In truth, I preferred the cold.

Slowly, I loosed each limb and entered the Discipline of Calm, not speaking until I was more than halfway through.

"What is the meaning of such a song?"