Back in black

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

The young woman who had looked after Zouichi and his siblings had taken it upon herself to instruct them in quite a few areas that were not strictly part of their curriculum -- areas regarded by many of the personnel at Toha Heavy Industries as impractical, even pointless.

Better that they should be taught one more way to kill an opponent without a sound, or log additional hours in test simulations.

But because it would have been disruptive and costly to switch instructors halfway, and because she was the daughter of a scientist of some importance to the project, she was allowed to continue with her eccentricities.

Some of the most peculiar of the lessons she insisted upon centered around an old Earth instrument, one that by the 31st century had become more of an amusing anachronism than anything else. Something you saw in old movies or read about in books, not something you kept in your house or paid to go listen to. It wasn't something he had time to practice, once he was released, but there seemed to be nothing but time here.

So Zouichi had found himself visiting the Sensoriums more often, not to destroy imaginary enemies in ever more creative ways, but to play -- mostly when he could reasonably be sure everyone else would be asleep, and therefore unlikely to come look for him. Today, however, he wasn't in the mood to bother waiting for people to turn in. There was one other oddity -- a bandage wrapped neatly about his forehead, half-covered by his bangs.

He shed his customary gloves, placing them on the surface of the polished black wood. Then he closed his eyes, placed his hands over the cool ivory keys, and began to play. Satie's Gymnopédie No. 1, a slow-paced, melancholy piece. He didn't know why, but playing it always made him remember the ocean. Or at least the simulated version of it; he'd never seen the real thing. The quiet ebb and flow of the tide, the breaking of each wave into sea foam upon the shore. The sea at early evening, perhaps, when all its visitors had gone home and the sun cast everything in long shadow.

Then, on a whim, he focused on summoning up an orchestral accompaniment: a crowd of black-clad musicians in which he might more easily blend in. Or maybe hide, if such a thing were possible on an open stage with a stern-faced conductor watching over all of them. For a moment, the musicians were still. Then, together, they began the first movement of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 In C Minor, Op. 18. It was easy, once they began playing, to simply lose himself in the swells of sound. The dreamlike ebb and flow of the violins, the rich, deep murmur of the cellos, the brassy reports of the trumpets, the clear, concise flurry of the flutes. Fascinating, the way the sounds of so many different individuals could come together to create a coherent narrative.

It was too bad he'd never get a chance to play with the real thing.

Comments

[vissernone.livejournal.com]

"Rachmaninoff."

Eva emerges as the last strains end, having been listening quietly since she stumbled on the occupied Sensorium near the beginning of he piece. It's been another relatively sleepless night at Cassie's house, and she normally uses those as excuses to slip out and drink wine and read in the Media Library, or re-enact classic movies with the hologram technology. She'd been intending to do the latter when she saw Zouichi.

It seemed a shame to interrupt him in the middle of the piece, so instead she waited until it was over.

"You're just full of surprises, aren't you?"

She motions to the bandage around his head, silently questioning if he's alright.

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Zouichi looked over his shoulder at her as the orchestra finished; he'd been so engrossed in playing that he hadn't even noticed her come in. The other musicians faded away until it was just him and the piano onstage. He gave her a slightly sheepish little wave. "What, do I look like I should be into rock or something?"

His hand went up to his forehead almost involuntarily, mirroring her own gesture.

"Oh. That. Technically, it wasn't necessary, I guess. But..." He hesitated a little. "Somehow it felt a little more final than just having a medic remove it. You know?"

He thought if anyone could understand the feeling of wanting to scrub away a memory, it might be Eva.

[vissernone.livejournal.com]

"I don't know. You just continually surprise me with your appreciation for the more delicate things in life." She interfaces a bit with the Sensorium, pulling forth a seat to watch the stage, a wine glass, and a bouquet of flowers to throw at him. She tosses it lightly onto the stage. "Bravo."

She nods, a bit solemn. "It's nice to be able to do those things yourself." You get to assert your own volition that way. "You're otherwise alright? Rachmaninoff isn't the Kanoe Zouichi equivalent of sleepwalking?"

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

He caught the bouquet deftly, placing it on the piano.

Zouichi nodded slowly. "I'm... a lot of things happened, I guess. But I'm still here." He hasn't quite begun decompressing, figuring out what the mission changed and what it didn't. "Did you hear about what happened during the mission yet? I always forget how extensive your nefarious spy network is."

Then he smiled slightly. "I'd need to sleep to sleepwalk. I might ask you something similar, though -- are you usually up this late?"

[vissernone.livejournal.com]

"Only what I could gather from the omnicomms. I don't imagine you exactly want to talk about it, but if you ever need to, or just want to destroy imaginary things with somebody, I've got some experience with these sorts of things." She keeps her voice carefully neutral - no patronizing charity, no condescending pity. She knows how much she hates to be treated like there's more wrong with her than she wants to acknowledge and she won't do Zouichi that disservice.

She shakes her head. "I didn't think my teenage son needed to see his mother drinking at three in the morning. Or whenever this is. Honestly, with as many psychological issues abounding on this ship as there are, we should just scrap the beer tree and plant one that dispenses Ambien."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Zouichi snorted; destroying things has done wonders for his disposition recently. "It's more like I barely know where to start. We were there, what, a couple days? Feels like over a month."

"I guess you already know the basics. Shortly after we got there, the Council took aside several of the crew members -- those they'd deemed 'clones' -- and branded them. Apparently, the government treated clones as a kind of worker underclass, shortening their lifespans and programming them only to perform certain tasks. So that was us.

Then it turned out what the Council wanted was our help putting down a rebellion put together by those mistreated clones. And we had endless rounds of talking about whether or not we should help them or not." His expression told her what he thought about that.

"There was a lot of talk about how it wasn't our problem, while the medical technology we wanted was. Stuff about how the technology could 'change the course of the war'." Zouichi waved a hand at that idea, dismissively.

"Anyway, then a bunch of us got kidnapped by the resistance forces. And long story short, we ended up setting up a deal with the resistance to steal a bunch of tech and help with one of their operations in return. And then came the clone army, and then the Councilors were five thousand years old and you needed to take the hay and the wolf across the river or the sheep would get eaten."

Seriously, the last few moments had been an utter clusterfuck.

He raised an eyebrow. "You let him stay up till three? I'm surprised."

[vissernone.livejournal.com]

She lets out a long, low whistle. "That...well, I guess that explains why everyone coming home was in a mood to raise Cain."

She's quiet for a few moments, processing that. Tools. They'd been told they were less than persons, then used as tools in a game between larger forces. Not altogether different than how Stacy treats and uses them. Their own lives, agendas, interests, have little matter in the grand scheme of things, where powers on high have entire armies to smash against each other like children with toy cars.

Typical. She should stop being surprised at this.

"You must have a lot of faith in me to think I can tell Marco what to do."

[carrieswar.livejournal.com]

Classical music? That was a surprising thing to hear in the Sensoriums. And Jr. wasn't really one to complain about it, either. He had a soft spot not only for the classical stuff, but for pianos in general. It was the first instrument he had ever heard played live before.

More surprising was seeing who say behind the ivories. Jr.'s eyebrows raised, and he took a few steps in. He still had a small limp, but rest more or less helped with that. "I didn't know you could play!"

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Zouichi turned, smiling a little when he saw who it was. "Hey. You're looking a little better. And who said I couldn't?"

He looked down at the keys for a moment before turning back to Jr. "Someone important to me taught me how to play. She said it might help me understand what it was like. You know. Being human."

[carrieswar.livejournal.com]

"Feeling a lot better, too." Physically, at any rate.

"I just never pegged you for the instrument playing type, that's all." Then again, nobody probably thought that way about him, either. But whatever. "How is it?"

The question was both in reference to how it felt in the sensoriums and how taking that someone important's advice turned out. He stepped up to the piano, running a gentle hand over the top.

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Zouichi watched a little curiously as Jr. touched the instrument. "Do you play, too?"

"Technically, I can play pretty much any instrument a human can. I just need to download an instructional file of the correct format. However, I learned how to play the piano the old-fashioned way. She insisted on it."

He paused. "...I like it, I guess. The sounds that it makes, the weight of the keys. It brings back memories. But I'm still not sure I understand what she wanted me to."

[carrieswar.livejournal.com]

"Well, it probably feels a lot different leaning how to play it than just downloading a bunch of files, right? That feeling is probably the main thing she wanted you to get." It was a lot more fulfilling, he thought.

"I can play it some," he said after that, somewhat nonchalantly. "I learned how to play it and a couple of other things. I really like pianos, though."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"It's easier to learn by downloading," Zouichi said, avoiding the question a little. It's not as though he doesn't grasp the theory behind being taught. Technically, anyway. It's just that... well, he's resisting the moral a little here.

He moved aside slightly, offering Jr. a seat. "You want to try?"

Zouichi would be rather interested to hear what Jr. might play.

[morganknight]

Yet again, the Akashic had wandered into a Sensorium without realizing it was occupied for several minutes after he'd done so. Idiot. But when he finally picked up on his environment, he couldn't bring himself to leave quite readily.

Classical music wasn't his favorite, but he still found it beautiful, and somehow he'd never thought he'd hear it here on the ship. He leaned back, shut his eyes, and let it wash over him.

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

As the last few strains of the orchestra died out, Zouichi became aware of Morgan's presence.

"Hello," he said, looking curiously at the man. "Are you a new arrival here?"

[morganknight]

He nodded. "Fresh out of the pods. I'm sorry, I have a terrible tendency to wander into these sensoriums without noticing they're occupied. Though I think in this case it was well worth my time."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"Not a problem," he said. "These things are always occupied. And thanks for the compliment. Are you settling in here all right? It's kind of a big ship."

[morganknight]

"Well enough. I have a friend on the ship from my world, and everyone here has been nothing but friendly and helpful so far." As odd as it was to encounter talking ponies... "I'm still trying to figure out how to help in this whole great quest."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"Oh? Anyone I know?" Zouichi started playing again, more quietly this time. "So what can you do? Shoot lasers out of your eyes? Use deadly ninja skills?"

He was kind of joking, but there were crew members who could do those things, so...

[alastirra.livejournal.com]

She had figured that what he needed most of was time. So when Alastirra had heard that the away party had returned to the ship, she hadn't immediately sought Zouichi out.

Not that she had precisely planned to find him here, either. Music was a rare enough pastime on Azeroth, though, and this was an even greater surprise.

The Draenei waited until he was done playing before clearing her throat faintly, hooves quiet as she stepped forward.

"I am glad you've returned safely, Zouichi." Or safely enough, right? "How are you?"

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Zouichi turned at the sound of the familiar voice. Now there was a face he hadn't seen in what seemed like ages. "Same here. And I guess I'm fine, more or less. How have you been?"

[alastirra.livejournal.com]

"Trying to keep busy. I've kept a checkup on Alan and there is always my garden, but...I did worry. A little. I know you are perfectly capable of taking care of yourself, but..."

Alastirra shrugged a bit at that, tilting her head and smiling. Though the smile drifted off her lips at the sight of the bandage on Zouichi's forehead.

No. No. She wasn't going to talk about that now. Nor could she really think of anything to say, though she gave him another smile. Then her expression brightened.

"You play very well! I do not know what this instrument is, though."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Zouichi gave her a reassuring smile; he didn't want to make her worry any more than events already had. "Thanks for looking out for him. And I'm fine, really -- there were other people that got off of that mission much worse off than I did."

He turned back to the keys. "Thanks. It's called a grand piano. It's an old Earth instrument, one that people don't play much any more. At least, not where I'm from."

[alastirra.livejournal.com]

"I am not sure I ever saw one, even in Stormwind, the human capital. I am fairly sure the smaller towns had nothing like this." The Draenei lifted a hand to her chin, expression thoughtful, but she didn't sit down, nor did she poke a key just to hear the sound it made. She wasn't a youngling, she wouldn't act like one!

"I do like music, though. Much of Draenei music was vocal--singing or chanting. Especially when we were at war with the orcs. Oh, I know there are plenty of portable instruments, but...for the most part almost everyone has a voice." Alastirra shrugged. Though that did mean that those who couldn't sing, or had no voice, like poor Nehaalista, were at a disadvantage.

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"Well, I did run into someone from your world who played a string instrument. But it's not quite the same thing. A piano is somewhere between a string and a percussion instrument... and it's not really portable."

"I see. Are you a singer yourself?" He wasn't sure if Alastirra would be willing to sing even if she was, but he might as well ask.