catchall for hk shenanigans

[lightlessfuture]

no i will not explain myself for this title

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[lightlessfuture]

They're being given a lesson. As always, when someone is trying to teach them something, they are attentive, focused in a way that blocks out everything else.

They cock their head to the side as the noises ring out. Metal, stone, chitin - all things to be surpassed, toyed with perhaps, ultimately cut through. The sound of the vast stone door being broken down, the clatter of the metal railings, the frenetic chime of the stagway's bells. Echoing footsteps through carven rock and rain.

They've never viewed it in this way before, not really. They'd found some amusement in the sound of bells and levers and switches, the recorded songs in the gardens and the trams, but that was all.

They look for a suitable stone of their own to strike their nail against, to follow her example. Their first attempt provides more of a cracking sound (too much force, they think). Not enough to cause a lot of damage, but it's not a sound that sings freely in the air.

They try a gentler approach, turning their nail's blade, striking the stone with a blunter edge. The combined sound isn't as strong as the one the stranger had made, but it's still a sound of some kind.

It's something new, something they haven't tried before. They try again, several more times, attempting to convey different notes in childish curiosity.

[heirloomrapier]

She's easily prone to amusement, perhaps, watching someone make rudimentary steps in an area she's known since her weaving, but this isn't the pampered child of an aristocrat calling themselves the greatest minstrel known to bugkind when they can hardly hold a harp straight. As such, this is perhaps a feast of relatively unguarded sincerity from her, and yet, there's sincerity to their efforts, as well.

She watches them attempt (and what an arm that little thing has, easily taking a piece out of the stone, and the nail no worse for wear, every delicate-looking carving still pristine), reevaluate and strike again, and then they seem to get the hang of it, even with a weapon not really designed for resonance.

"Well, it certainly seems like you have an ear for it already." Useful, that this is so far out in the wilds. Closer to Pharloom's heart, making such a ruckus would attract... dubious attention. Out here, the only thing to hear them are moss beasts, really. Not much of a discerning audience, that.

She hums, flicking her pin upward in the air to the first position and calls a ringing butterfly out of the ambient light. It lands on her free hand, opening and closing its wings.

[lightlessfuture]

By the way they straighten their posture from where they're hunched over in concentration, it seems they're happy to have her approval.

They amuse themselves with the sounds a while longer, and they probably could have done it all day if not stopped, but the butterfly distracts them. They've seen bigger butterflies before, ones that sang and spoke. This one reminds them of the little winged lights that flutter around them, or the small companions called to existence, when they use certain charms.

It's magic they've never seen before, and thus is wonderfully new to them. It feels different to the soul they're used to wielding, the restless spirits of the dead; it hums and sings with its own kind of special resonance.

They leave off their music-making and sheathe their nail, tilting their head up in clear curiosity to watch the fluttering light.