Court of the Fallen
[Mini Event] A Little Night Music - Printable Version

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A Little Night Music - Lily - 10-18-2019

On the first day of LongNight, my true love gave to me…

Lily’s Calm and Cozy Midnight Serenade!

Might as well do it the first night, because the redhead is just dying to debut her newest toy and most beautiful creation to date. Knowing the power of a personal invitation, the entertaineer (harp in had), goes from room to room in the Guildhall and offers everyone staying there a soft hello and an invite to join her in what she assumes is the living room. The parlor? One of the biggest rooms, where they call can gather.

What? Lily doesn’t know. She’s never stepped foot in the Guildhall before.

With a cup of tea on table beside her, the fire-kissed woman settles herself on a chair with the music maker to the other side. Padding the seat with a comfy cushion, she begins to tune the instrument, waiting for whatever audience decides to show up. She offers smiles to friends and strangers alike, finding herself happy for the first time in months. It’s amazing what a little music can do, despite the nasty situation. Here's hoping it is as soothing for her hallmates as it is to the musician herself.


RE: A Little Night Music - Remi - 10-19-2019

Stoking the fire with enough wood that he shouldn't have to disturb Lily, the alchemist takes up a spot near the hearth with Aoife nestled on his lap. Though the girl is at the age were crawling about is infinitely better than sitting still, Remi's constant cooing that she ought to wait and see what Lily has, placate her for a moment.

Still, with grubby hands she reaches out towards the entertainer, singing her own nonsense song in the interim.


RE: A Little Night Music - Ronin - 10-19-2019

Whilst infinitely not in the mood for song or joy or... well, anything more than waiting this endless night out, Ronin knew better than to seclude himself too much. It didn’t work besides (his mind cast back to Amalia, as he’d been trying to hide himself in Aoife’s room). And so the guildmaster was there as well, leaning against the chimney breast and standing just behind where Remi and their daughter sit and wait.

He offered Lily a small smile, a silent thank-you; whatever happened between now and when the sun rose again, this had to be better than the majority of the alternatives. So Ronin forced his shoulders to relax, smiled down at Aoife trying to squirm in Remi’s lap, and waited for the show to begin.


RE: A Little Night Music - Adam - 10-19-2019

Adam had had a moment of excitement when there had been a monster at the door, but the majority of Longnight so far had been boring. There was only so much sitting in a room being scared he could manage, even with Pet at his side.

So when he heard the beginnings of music he sat up, eager to see what was happening. While singing Kumbaya around the fire also wasn't his idea of a good time, it was at least something different from what he had been doing. Coffee by his ankles, he walked up to sit on the floor nearby to the fire, resting his chin on his hand and waiting to see what it was Lily would play.

Of course, he wouldn't know any of the songs, but maybe later he'd have a chance to sing one of the old bar tunes he'd known back home. Admittedly most of them were about doing rude things to a King no one here would be familiar with, but they had a good melody.


RE: A Little Night Music - Melita - 10-20-2019

The soft ambience floated through the wings and corridors, reminding Melita of lighter, calmer moments, not seething below potential sieges, not tempestuous, bestial storms, not the breaking of demons and mortals alike. She followed it, staff in hand like a lifeline, clutched by tightened fists, meandering down the halls because the guild was familiar and the music recalled memories and pockets of better times – before these calamities, before these torn asunder lifestyles. Fangorn bounded beside her, airy too, as if he knew and recognized the strings of harpsichord whims and rhapsody over the idle tides of melancholy and disaster – and maybe he did, born to survive when the rest of his brethren had fallen.

The youth wasn’t surprised to see others gathered in the main portions, enticed and tempted by the rapture instead of the molten, infernal schism below, as if it were a lacquer, an enamel, a bounty over munitions and sedition. She nodded to Remi, to Ronin, waved to Aoife, and settled herself near Adam, by the fire, maneuvering her quiver, her staff, so they settled into her lap (always ready, always fervent, always itching below her flesh and bone). Fangorn managed to place himself amidst the weapons, eerie eyes watching Lily, as Melita tried to match with a light little hum; incapable of lyrics and stanzas with any beauty or grace.


RE: A Little Night Music - Lily - 10-22-2019

While children may not be her forte, after a grateful smile to Remi for the heat (does she still look too thin?), Lily briefly turns her attention to the squirming toddler and offers her the mic part of the magical thing for tactile inspection. At least until it starts to get slobbery - at which case, Lily gently takes it back, wipes it off with a sweater, and turns to finish tuning her lap harp.

When the meager audience is assembled (and she tries not to let it show that’s just a tad disappointed), Lily begins.[say] “I thought I’d start with a couple of songs from home and then debut one I promised a long time ago, one that is too late in coming, but can perhaps be appreciated by… well, most everyone here.”[/say] And so, picking up the harp, she places it between her knees and begins to strum the intro. Softly, eerily, reverently almost, Lily starts to sing.

[say] “In the bleak midwinter,
Frosty wind made moan.
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone.
Snow had fallen, snow
Snow on snow on snow
In the bleak midwinter
Long, long ago.”[/say]

Lost in the notes and the melody, Lily sings through a couple of verses of In the Bleak Midwinter, before drawing the makeshift lullaby to a close. With the briefest pause for a sip of tea and to put down the harp, she reaches for the music machine, then launches into something a little more… light, but no less quiet, given the circumstances.  

[say] “Good King Wenceslas looked out
On the feast of Stephen
When the snow lay roundabout
Deep and crisp and even
Brightly shone the moon that night
Though the frost was cruel
When a poor man came in sight
Gathering winter fuel.”[/say]

And so on and so forth, until that song, too, is finished.

-----------------------------
In the bleak midwinter sounds like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9FnlYdZl4M
Good King Wencelas sounds like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgFHsJhwug8


RE: A Little Night Music - Jigano - 10-22-2019

Roana's death might not have really phased him, but Caiside's? Caiside's death had struck Jigano deeply, and sunk in his mourning he had missed the initial sounds of the lapharp. He was dozing in the cold room with the bodies, foxform keeping him warm as he curled around Isuma, when the sound of In the Bleak Midwinter made its way to his sensitive ears. He raised his head in dull surprise, blinking in the gentle light of his lantern that shed a soothing glow over the corpses. After a moment he rose and shook himself, shaking right out of his foxform and into his human one long enough to open the door and close it again behind Isuma before he shrunk down once more.

He didn't want to speak to anyone at the moment, however well-intentioned, but he took the lantern's handle in his mouth and padded to a corner where he could curl up around it and watch Lily, letting her music bring a little solace to his grieving heart.


RE: A Little Night Music - Amalia - 10-23-2019

Amalia cannot help but be drawn to the music, though it takes her a moment to find her way to the audience. She has been standing guard near the door but now she wanders closer, still wearing the skin of the luminous qilin, her hooves picking daintily through the hall. Lily's playing is lovely, her voice enticing; it reminds her of LongNights long ago, when her grandmother would similarly entertain.

Dressed in lilac and sliver and scales the Shield drifts along the outskirts until she nears the fire, trying to be an unobtrusive as possible while still maintaining her shape. Quietly she bends her knees, settling onto the floor near Adam and Melita, a silent invitation extended for them to lean against her if they will, her large, soft eyes bright as she watches Lily captivate them all.

Jyoti has no such trepidation and makes her way joyously to the singer's side, spreading starlight to help set the stage, appreciative of the relief from oppressive quiet and dark.


RE: A Little Night Music - Adam - 10-23-2019

Adam did not know the songs Lily sung, as expected, but he swayed to them anyway. It was nice to take a little time to relax and just enjoy something.

He didn't recognise the creature that came to sit up next to him at first, but when she sat next to him he suddenly realised it was Amalia. Adam smiled and leaned against her, taking a deep relaxed breath as he watched Lily play.


RE: A Little Night Music - Melita - 10-23-2019

She hadn’t heard a song like this before, and she tilted her head towards the melody, the notes, the strains, the stanzas, the hum under her breath falling away so she could simply listen. The youth was further distracted by the arrival of a deer-like creature, and she wouldn’t have known who it was at all save for Jyoti’s presence, her heart instantly warming at the notion that it was one of Amalia’s shifts. How beautiful, she admired and revered, instantly taking the invitation to maneuver closer, leaning on lilac shoulders. She didn’t want to interrupt the music to tell the baker her notions, but she figured it would remain sculpted into her features – beatific and reverent, impressed.


RE: A Little Night Music - Lily - 10-26-2019

It isn’t until midway through Good King Wencelas that Lily notices the additions to the crowd and smiles to herself - and to the lovely new additions.

She runs through a couple more, but then it’s time to draw the concert to a close. And it’s time to do it with a very special song. Setting the musical machine down, she takes a sip of tea and then glances almost shyly around the room.[say] “This will be the last song. It was commissioned by Ianto in return for an item from the Wishing Wagon. If I had been better, I might have had it done before the blight, but unfortunately…”[/say] her arms spread wide in a shrug. They all know. Nothing could be done.[say] “So I am proud to present Arduinna, because I am not great at naming things, and because it is dedicated to the woman who saved us.”[/say] With a delicate little clearing of her voice, Lily stands and hums a note, prompting the machine to kick in with what sounds like epic and slightly sorrowful brass and string instruments.

[say] “Go out and tell her story
Let it echo far and wide
Make them hear you
Make them hear you

How fearless was her battle
How she gave her very life
Make them hear you
Make them hear you

And say to those who loved her,
to the Fae of Sidhe and Stone
To the creatures of the Wildwood,
All who call the forest Home

That her beauty and her power lives
in selfless sacrifice
Make them hear you
Make them hear you”[/say]

The music begins to build, to swell, signaling a change in tone. Lily’s voice rises a little bit.

[say]In Safrin's Shrine she kneels in prayer
Black as the blight's foul mess
Vi's roses make a godly bed
For Arduinna's loyal rest.”[/say]

Now the crescendo. She begins the next verse with renewed vigor. So, too, do new instruments seem to complement and lift up the words.

[say] "Go out and tell her story
to your daughters and your sons
make them hear you
make them hear you

You must tell them of her fire,
of her eyes that shined like gold
Make them hear you
Make them hear you

Remember how she healed us
Sucked the poison, took it in
Teach every child to kiss her cheek
and then, my darlings, then”[/say]

The final verse, and Lily is as loud as she dares; so caught up is the singer in the emotions of singing this song aloud, in the emotional distress all that happened during the blighted days that the firelight reflects tears in the redhead’s eyes.

[say] “Will Arduinna be belov'd
In the hearts of Caido's men
Make them hear you
When they hear you
She'll be near you, again.”[/say]

No matter what they personally think of the wild fae, they had to agree that the tribute was fitting. Arduinna had saved them. And now she’ll be remembered. When the last note fades from the room, Lily bows her head for a moment and then looks out at her audience with a small, sad smile on her face.


---------------
Arduinna is based off of Ragtime's Make Them Hear You, which can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYc2T_BlPx4&list=RDJaacWTKJBcc&index=2

Just imagine a women's voice singing it!


RE: A Little Night Music - Jigano - 10-27-2019

The song was moving and beautiful, though still sad because it was a song of loss. The blight had been defeated, yes, but at what cost? Arduinna had been a woman of great power and great knowledge, an intrinsic part of the Greatwood, and now she would remain forever rooted to one spot like her beloved trees. She had given her life to save them all, and the white fox bowed his head in sorrow as the song finished.

So many lost in the past year. How many more, before the final week of the year ended? He uncoiled his sinuous, furred body and rose, offering the songstress a canine bow for her talents and the cheer she had brought to the Hall for the evening, a chance to forget the fear that paced and chittered outside the doors and windows.

But the songs were over and the night crept back in, and Jigano turned to catch his lantern's handle in his jaws and padded back to the room that held the bodies to continue his deathwatch, preferring the quiet of the dead to the company of the living for now.