[open] these melodies we play

[bloodyashes]

Who: Asch and you! And a somewhat odd critter in one prompt.
What: Asch doing stuff around the station once he gets settled in... Hey, who left the music on?
When: Variously the first 2-3 weeks after the intro log
Where: Around!
Warnings: None present, but watch the comment headers as always with Asch. His new ability however has a Opt-in/out here!

Kitchens and cafeteria

[Though primarily in the upper kitchens of the Rise, it's also possible to catch Asch at the Keystone kitchens, using them for... Well, their very much intended purpose. He's not making anything fancy, but he's a generally competent cook, if you're the sort to have an interest. Oddly enough, he's still got a sword belted around his waist.

Possibly more notable, however, is when he sits at a table in the cafeteria. In front of him, coiled up on the table, is what initially appears to be a black snake with a belly of shimmering reds and oranges and a bit of green iridescence in the black. Close examination, however, would reveal that the 'snake' is in fact covered in feathers, not scales. It's about four feet long if it stretched out and somewhat on the thinner side for its length.

Asch, for his part, has a small piece of some kind of red, raw meat on the tip of a fork, and appears to be gently waving it to encourage the snake to snap at it.]

Come on, already...

Library

[Who's playing music in the library?

Well, if you follow it to its source, you'll find Asch, frowning at a shelf in either the science section - specifically, animals and zoology - or the magic section, where he's found a cache of books on unfamiliar methods of healing magic. You might also find him with a pile of the latter at a desk, paging through them thoughtfully.

The music doesn't stop, wherever it is he goes, but it's at least at a low enough volume that you can ignore it once you're a few shelves away...]

Sand beach

[This week's fight club meeting had a bit of music lurking at the edges, watching, but ultimately Asch opted to forgo participating. Afternoon instead finds him on the beach to train, an open enough area. He uses boulders as casting targets and works through moves on the sand with the sword normally belted to his hip. It's just a good idea, really.

But as the afternoon wears more into sunset, you might also catch him sitting, caught up in the music that's picked up in the last rays of the sun and the shadows cast by the cliffside. He's let his hair fall for now, a red curtain down his back, and sits on a rock idly doodling in the sand with one of the spines that he uses to keep his hair up.]

Elsewhere

[Got somewhere else you want to find Asch? Hit me up, drop me a tune, whatever.]

Comments

Cafeteria

[misanthropicprinciple]

What is that thing?

[Junpei doesn't seem scared, but he's not running over to coo at it, either, standing there with a can of soda in his hand and a look of consternation on his face.]

Should you be letting that up on the table?

[bloodyashes]

Beats me. It climbed into my bag in the city and invited itself along.

[Asch isn't going to look up at this exact moment, his gaze on the snake and the food it is not eating.]

Decided it likes me somewhere down the line, but I've never had a pet in my life.

[misanthropicprinciple]

Maybe it's some kind of dragon.

[It's not snapping Asch's hand up to eat, so Junpei comes over to peer at it.]

Are you sure it needs to eat? Looks magical to me.

[bloodyashes]

It's not like monsters don't need to eat.

[The connotations of the word he uses for 'monster' map more closely to 'magical beast' than they do to 'horror movie fodder.' Asch glances up at Junpei, then back down at the snake, which is thipping its tongue in Junpei's direction.]

And it doesn't feel [Sound?] magical. Just like a normal animal, or whatever passes for normal here.

cafeteria

[burninglight]

...That’s an odd looking Midgardsormr. Terribly small for one, too.

[bloodyashes]

Never heard of them.

[Wave, wave. The snake flicks its tongue and seems more interested in eyeballing Ardyn.]

Any idea what they eat? This is my third try.

[burninglight]

The ones I’m used to? People, garulas, probably an anak calf on occasion.

[bloodyashes]

So, large animals, then.

[He waves the fork again with a sigh.]

Even a small snake needs to eat at least once a week, right?

library

[nojohnyouare]

[Mai follows the music quietly, Bear-san off his leash at her side. The mechanical bear growls when the music starts getting discordant, but otherwise calmly searches for bugs or dust bunnies to vacuum up.]

Libraries... Sound regulations.

[bloodyashes]

Trust me, I know.

[Bum, badadadadada bum. The music keeps going, heedlessly enough.]

I can't make it stop.

[nojohnyouare]

...?

[She narrows her eyes and then tilts her head.]

Power. Oh. ...Hello. New?

[bloodyashes]

Yeah, something like that.

[To both the 'power' thing and the 'New?' question.]

Beach, afternoon

[nor_iron_bars]

[You can drag Jail to fight club, but you can't make her participate.]

[Well, actually, you probably can if you let Lily guilt her into it, which is why she's made a point of escaping before anyone can think to suggest that she try it. So long, suckers.]

[...in total honesty, she doesn't really object to working on her skills that much, it's just the principle of the thing. If she wasn't ridiculous and contrary, people might start to worry.]

[She ambles casually along down the beach, enjoying the view, until a flash of red and a faint sound up ahead catch her attention.]

Heya, how's it going?

picks the non fight option

[bloodyashes]

Hey.

[The music adds a guitar line buried somewhere in the melody.]

Well enough aside from -

[He hums along for a minute, to make it clear.]

[nor_iron_bars]

[Jail tilts her head curiously, an oddly birdlike little gesture.]

Huh, not a bad tune. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess that you don't got a radio or something 'round here that I'm not seeing?

[bloodyashes]

No. It started doing this this morning, and I can't make it stop.

Library

[giltfoil]

[Ravus doesn't consciously notice the music at first; it's only as he walks out of its range toward the history section that he realizes he's humming along with something. Rather than look for new books to replace those he's just returned, he follows the sound into the magical tomes.]

Is that your music? [He pauses. He expected to see some kind of music player, but there is none in sight.] Is that you?

[bloodyashes]

[It's not hard to track to the teen with the extremely red hair. Asch glances up at the question, and then sighs.]

Yes, and yes, and no, I can't make it stop.

[moarlazersplz]

[Ruto had heard about the weekly fight club and wandered down to take a look at the goings-on, but hadn't quite been ready to step forward into the ring just yet. Instead she's been exploring the seaside - rather, she's been "scouting the area," which just means that she's been meandering along with her shoes off and the surf washing over her toes. The ocean water has her feeling oddly homesick for Limsa and her house in the Mists.

The sound of music up ahead has her ears perking up questioningly, and she picks up her step a little to round the corner, making no attempt to hide her splashing approach.]

[bloodyashes]

[Even with the music, Asch has pretty keen ears - he's looking in the direction of the splashing as she comes around. There's a sword in his hand, but it's clearly some sort of spell he looses into the ocean - a green thunderbolt vaguely in the shape of a blade.

The arte done, he swings the point of the sword down in what's pretty clearly a nontheatening gesture.]

Hey.

[moarlazersplz]

[Her eyes track the bolt of lightning magic into the water even as she almost skitters fully ashore, just in case that really is lightning magic. Lightning + water = crispy kitty, generally, and she's got no desire to test that math.

Still, with the combination of magic and that sword of his - and let's face it, the hair and outfit - Ruto can only come to one conclusion.]

Hi! Are you a Red Mage?

[bloodyashes]

[Hey, now, red mages use rapiers and this is clearly too broad to be one of those.]

Never heard of one.

library

[zweihandler]

[ Perhaps someone with a passing degree of common decency would be inclined to ignore the noise. Or if not, to at least make a polite request for quiet.

Erina, as should be expected of her, chooses instead to overarm throw a book right at what (or rather, who) appears to be the source of the sound. It's a paperback, thankfully, but still. Good lord. ]

Holy shit, who raised you? Turn your damn music off in a library, dumbass!

[bloodyashes]

[bonk.

Asch wheels around instantly and glares at her.]

You think I don't know that? I can't.

[Correspondingly to his show of temper, the music up-tempos and adds an aggressive violin line.]

[zweihandler]

The hell do you mean you can't?

[ Commence Operation: Dubious Squinting ]

Where's it even coming from?