it's like forgetting the words to your favorite song ( open )

[schnapp]

Who | beth greene / open
What | what are you supposed to do with an unlimited credit card? buy a piano. and try to lug it up an elevator in a comedy of errors.
Where | some music store in the capitol / the tribute center
When | a bit after the mini arena
Warnings/Notes| naw.



She's never had a credit card before. She was 16 when the apocalypse hit, living in the middle of nowhere with an allowance for doing chores around the farm. Which promptly went into an old piggy bank that she's pretty sure is still sitting there among the ruins of their home, probably crawling with walkers by now. With all the photo albums and childhood movies and her mom's favorite china. Everything she's ever owned was worn-down, well used. Still loved, despite all that.

Needless to say, the Capitol is kind of a culture shock to her. And it would be, even by pre-apocalypse standards. They give her a credit card and tell her that it's unlimited, but she doesn't want anything they have - with one exception.

MUSIC STORE

The place is a wonder. It's everything she's ever wanted in a music store, all laid out in a way that's slightly intimidating. She knows how to play the piano - some simple songs, some basic chords, pretty and quiet, but she's not some kind of musical virtuoso. And there are so many things here that make her head spin.

She settles on the smallest piano she can find that doesn't look like a toy. There are some fancier ones, but this one sort of reminds her of the one they had at home, and nostalgia's a powerful motivator. She sits down and plays a fragment of the first song she can think off off the top of her head, singing quietly to herself.

and we'll buy a beer to shotgun
and we'll lay in our lawns
and we'll be good.

TRIBUTE CENTER

...but just because it's smaller doesn't mean it's any easier to drag down the street on a rolling board. They tell her that the avoxes can do it, but Beth's stubborn and the avoxes make her uncomfortable because she's aware of how much they've probably suffered. She doesn't want to make them do anything she can't do herself, and she actually makes it down to the tribute center, albeit exhausted and panting.

But the elevator has a slight raise to it. Enough that a person stepping over it wouldn't be bothered at all, but a girl with a ridiculously heavy piano? That's a whole other story.

Comments

[ruffntumblenut]

Ruffnut's face suddenly burned red and she looked as startled as if a normal person had been asked to strut around naked. In fact Ruffnut thought she might prefer it.

"Um...I can try...there's this one song we sing to help kids who are afraid, that's pretty slow."

She coughed to clear her throat as if it would help.

"Hush little Viking don't you cry, or the berserker will stab you in the eye. Don't let the enemy see your afraid or he'll gut you with a rusty blade..."

Her voice was gravely and low, unpolished and clearly unused to singing alone.

[schnapp]

She's sung Judith a lot of lullabies over the past couple of months. Some of them weren't exactly the conventional rockabye songs, and they usually tended to be anything she had stuck in her head at the moment. Sometimes ranging into the slightly morbid or melancholy.

But the lyrics to that song have her wide-eyed, and when Ruffnut finishes, she's silent for a moment. A little awkwardly, before she snaps herself out of it. "Oh, I...don't think I've ever heard a version like that."

It sounds like a good lullabye for making sure your child has a string of nightmares.

[ruffntumblenut]

Ruffnut's blush just burns more in embarrassment thinking that she's done a terrible job. "Y-yeah well...it's what we sing back home." She muttered with a flustered pout folding her arms defensively.

"And we can't all have soft gentle voices like you." she added for good measure. "It took alot of screaming to make my voice sound this tough."

[schnapp]

Oh. It's obvious that she's embarrassed, and Beth feels bad about that. Especially since Ruffnut's less likely to sing going forward if she's embarrassed by this.

"I'm sorry," she tells her, and obviously meaning it too. "I didn't mean that it wasn't nice. It's just different. That ain't bad," and there's a tentative smile to accompany her words.

"I guess toughness is really important where you come from, huh? It's...kinda the same, where I'm from."

[ruffntumblenut]

Ruffnut seems to relax a bit at the apology. It's not as though she's particularly proud of her voice to begin with except for how loud it can be. At the observation she nodded.

"Yeah, Vikings gotta be tough. Pretty much from the day we're born we've got people trying to kill us and take what we have. Berserkers, outcasts, pirates, and especially dragons...at least till a little while ago when Hiccup figured out how Dragons work." She explained fumbling awkwardly with her hands not sure what to do with them. Everything seemed so out of place in this world to the point where even the most simple activity of talking to someone was making Ruffnut second guess herself, and it was clear on her face. Finally she settled for stuffing her hands in her pockets.

"Who was trying to kill you where you're from?"