[Action, Accidental Voice] .014

[markofthebrave]

[Utter doom has managed to hold itself off for the past week, and so today is Katara's first day of school! She's excited and a little nervous, since she's never been to any sort of school before. While preparing and lecturing herself she jostles her journal.]

--vous about. It's going to be just fine. Now where did I put that -- oh. [Someone's just noticed her journal's opened.] Man. I'll be late! [And she shuts the book quickly, not noticing what was recorded and starts on her way.

Of course, her nerves aren't helped by the fact that she hardly slept at all last night. Her room still smells faintly of ash, and the memories that scent triggers aren't pleasant. The nightmares are old ones, and the one she had last night one that she remembered. It had her up in the middle of the night, practicing in their back yard until exhausted.

She's almost tempted to just stay in bed all day, but she told Raine she'd be trying to go to school soon and doesn't want to go back on that. So there she goes, to and from school. So if you're at the school today? Expect a wide-eyed new girl. And if you're anywhere in the center of town after that, expect a slightly dazed one, trying to remember what she has to pick up in the grocery store.]

Comments

[markofthebrave]

[He gets a grateful look. Oh good, someone who knows what to do. She's not so nervous now that she won't be able to ask questions.] Thanks. I appreciate the help. I'm Katara.

[emp3thy]

I'm Minato.

[he heads towards her and the classroom door.] The office is this way.

[markofthebrave]

[And she'll just follow along.] Nice to meet you, Minato. [Pause.] What was that you had in your ears before?

[emp3thy]

[The question doesn't seem to surprise him. He's more than used to it by now.]

They're headphones. For listening to music.

[markofthebrave]

Really? [Katara stops and looks at him. He doesn't look like he's pulling her leg, but music? Really]

How... is that possible? Is it some kind of magic device?

[emp3thy]

[he shakes his head.] It's technology.

[and he takes a step closer, pulling the headphones off and offering them to her. Would she like to see for herself?]

[markofthebrave]

[She would - but she is a bit more wary of technology than your average 'never seen it before' person from another world. Electricity makes her cautious.] You mean like microwaves?

[Katara takes a step forward and reaches out a tentative hand towards the headphones.]

[emp3thy]

Sort of.

[He waits for her to take them, then begins hunting for a song she might like. Sadly, most of the tech-unsavvy people he's met don't respond well to "Burn My Dread," so he has to decide on something less cool.]

[markofthebrave]

[So Katara takes the headphones and puts them on after some awkward fumbling. This is weird. Kind of like wearing a hat, but for ears.]

I don't hear anything...

[emp3thy]

[Give him a moment. Once he's settled on the song and he sees she has the headphones on, he presses play. This begins (with lyrics here.)]

1/?

[markofthebrave]

[Katara jumps when the music starts to play, for a moment wide-eyed and tense.]

2/?

[markofthebrave]

[As she adjusts to the fact that this is actually happening, Katara goes very, very still. It's beautiful. And it feels like it's... completely surrounding her, like flying on Appa's back in the middle of the night and feeling as if she could reach out and touch the stars...

She glances at Minato, but is too full of wonder to even smile as she just closes her eyes and listens. She's not trying to pick out the different instruments, or understand the words, or figure anything out... she is just... completely swept away into the experience of such a sound, and such music...]

DONE

[markofthebrave]

[When the song ends, Katara hesitantly removes the earphones and extends them to him again.]

That was... [amazing. Brilliant. Beautiful. Words fail her and she just shakes her head, her wonder reflected on her face.]

[emp3thy]

[He smiles back at her. It seems he picked the right song.]

I'm glad you liked it.

[markofthebrave]

['Like' seems like too small a word.] I really did. I've never heard anything like that before. It's amazing how it just... surrounds you and goes right into you at the same time.

[Awed eyes. She still has them.]

[emp3thy]

I agree. Though, that's why I like music in general. [he's smiling more than usual, but it's his favorite topic - and a good distraction.]

[markofthebrave]

We have music on my world but -- nothing like that. [She shakes her head again, still just... deeply touched, like she'd walked away from a beautiful sunset. It's just a pause, though. In a minute, her natural curiosity will bubble up.]

Nothing that surrounds you like that, or that you can carry with you.

[emp3thy]

It took a while to get it to work here. [but at least it did. He's not sure what he would have done all year without it.]

[markofthebrave]

So how does it get into the headphones? Does all the music in your world sound like that? [Peeeeering at those headphones.]

[emp3thy]

It's recorded by instruments and stored in here. [sorry, he can't really explain it more easily.] And not really. There's as many kinds of music as there are people.

[markofthebrave]

Kind of like the journals record things? I guess that makes sense.

[Yup, still curious.] What kind of instruments were being played? There were a lot of sounds that I didn't recognize. I heard drums! But I'd never heard strings like that before.

[emp3thy]

That's the electric guitar.

[markofthebrave]

Electric... guitar?

[emp3thy]

You don't have guitars?

[markofthebrave]

[She shakes her head.] Not that I've ever heard of. Maybe they have a different name? What do they look like?