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

[schnapp]

She doesn't have a piano bench, but she does have a chair that she moves into place, fingers trailing lightly against the keys. Pressing a few here and there, the soft notes lingering for a few minutes in the air. It's beautiful, so crisp and clear, and it has her expression brightening at the melody as she runs her hand against the smooth keys.

"It's nicer than the one we had at home. There was this one key that was always gettin' stuck, and the pedal didn't work half the time," but at the same time, she sounds kind of wistful. She misses that old thing, having long since memorized every familiar scratch and dent on the aged wood.

[reassures]

It's a much nicer instrument than Nill would have thought the Capitol capable of having. Not that they would be lacking the resources for it, but that they just wouldn't care enough about it to really make it wonderful. But the notes sound like they should to her, even if she hasn't heard them in ages, and she brushes her fingertips over a few keys, though not with enough pressure to produce a note. It was a really good idea for Beth to get one.

yours sounds nice too.
do you know many songs?

[schnapp]

"A couple. What kind of songs do you like? I could play you somethin'," she doesn't think she's that great at the piano - mostly, she presses a few simple chords here and there. It works for the kinds of songs that she sings, simple and melodic. There are a couple she knows off by heart, and a couple she needs the music for. Some old hymns she'd play at their tiny church a couple of Sundays every month, old folk songs, and her favorite tracks from a few of her favorite CDs. And of course, some music she'd dabbled in writing herself, too embarrassed to show anyone.

Beth makes a mental note to invite Nill along the next time she goes out to the music store to pick some books up.

[reassures]

Nill's always liked gentle songs, things that are a little quieter, with more voice than music - not because she didn't like music, but because she loved people singing so much more.

It doesn't look like she knows what to say at first, but eventually she writes something and holds it up for Beth again.

something soft?

[schnapp]

Something soft. She can do soft. Beth pauses for a moment, as if she's deciding what song to play. There are a few that would fit the bill, but they're sad. She wants something hopeful. So she stands in front of the piano and begins to press a few gentle keys.

And then she begins to sing.

"Black clouds are behind me, I now can see ahead
Often I wonder why I try hoping for an end
Sorrow weighs my shoulders down
And trouble haunts my mind
But I know the present will not last
And tomorrow will be kinder

Tomorrow will be kinder
It's true, I've seen it before
A brighter day is coming my way
Yes, tomorrow will be kinder."

told you

[reassures]

Nill listens to Beth sing quietly, and as she goes on her eyes get slightly wider and wider, until it morphs into a kind of awe. She's heard people sing before, mostly on TV or in videos, or back in the Bishop's church. The hymns. They were all pretty, and Nill always liked them. Beth's singing, however, is much different. She wouldn't even need the music, Nill's sure.

She's really beautiful.

Nill looks at Beth like she hangs the moon. She might be blushing a little.

GAY. SO GAY.

[schnapp]

The song is one of her favorites, it's something she sings softly to herself whenever things feel hopeless. Tomorrow will be kinder, right? It's something that Beth keeps believing. Sometimes, it's the only thing that gets her out of bed in the morning. What makes it worth it to keep surviving in a world like theirs.

It means a lot to her. And Nill -- well. She's looking at her with such adoration that it's making Beth blush, in turn. Distracts her so she presses the wrong key by accident, the note sharply dissonant in comparison to the others.

"Um. So that's...one of my favorites," she mumbles, cheeks bright. "I sing it a lot. One of -- my friends, he used to tell me that my singing was kind of annoyin'."

oh my god the gay is so strong

[reassures]

A wide grin splits across Nill's face, even as her own cheeks remain a very healthy shade of pink. Yeah, that adoration has not worn off yet at all.

She seems to realize that Beth has actually said something she can reply to a moment late, and quickly picks up the notepad again, smile unwavering even if the delay makes her wings flutter a little, briefly embarrassed.

it's not annoying.
it's beautiful.

[schnapp]

"Really?"

It's hard not to feel like they're losing parts of themselves to whatever their new world has become. Music is frivolous, she knows. It's a luxury. It's not essential to their survival, not technically. But there's a part of her that wants to hold on to it,as much as she can. A part of her that wonders what they are and who they become if they lose the ability to appreciate something as simple as a song.

I never sung out in public like everything was fun. Like everything was a big game.

But she'll sing anyway, and she'll sing until the day she dies.

"Thank you," Beth says softly, looking at her like that simple compliment had meant the world.