Quest - Starfight Ghostlight | Page 2

A world harmony chorus? Oh, though Cain hadn’t heard of such a thing in the Other Side before, the muse was certain that such an organization existed, especially with how much of a melting pot American culture was. Still, what Harveste suggested did pique his curiousity. Being someone who chased after rumors himself, only to be disappointed by how boring the truth actually was, it made a fair amount of sense that mixing fiction with fact could create stories rather easily. The corruption of truth lent itself to quite a few famous stories now, after all, and even if they weren’t necessary ‘proper’, if they could last long enough to take root in the mind of an individual, that person’s own thoughts and opinions would further aid in the germination of the story.

As a matter of fact, they could easily pull from a wide variety of rumors to create their stories, couldn’t they? The gold dust within the forest of Brisshal was an easy event to evoke, being in close proximity of Stokbon and never have been properly resolved. From the Kobolds that had attacked to the mysterious origins of the gold dust to the personal accounts from the survivors who had been captured by those cult-like beastmen, there was definitely a way to spin a spooky story and swing it into a serene but spine-chilling song. And the bones with the markings on them! That too was a rumor they could use!

Opening his mouth, Cain was about to unleash a torrent of his own ideas into this brainstorming session, but before he could, Surrechis offered up her greatest asset once more: her wide range of songs. Ever a gentleman, he turned his hand palm-up, gesturing to the melancholy muse, “Please, feel free to go ahead, Lady Surrechis. Experiencing the musical talents of others is part of the joy of these types of jobs, after all.”

A quiet cough calmed the flood of ideas in his mind, as he waited for her to start.

 

The words and melodies unsung flowed through her mind as she waited for @Surrechis to come up with one of her own. The thoughts were loud, but not enough to cloud her hearing. She sat on the ground, fingers tapping against her knees with legs crossed in a lax fashion.

Having heard that Surrechis had an idea or two, she nodded in consensus with @Cain Darlite . "Go on, please sing! I'd love to hear your voice, and the song you have in mind. A song from your heart will surely be beautiful." Clapping a bit, she waited for the music to flow from her fellow Faerin's lips, before looking at their third of the ensemble.

"Maybe we should all sing a bit from our own repertoire, to learn how our voices meld together too, afterward. A song we each think fitting, that we can use to inspire ourselves and learn our medley."

 

Hearing that the others were ready to hear her song, she chose the Cadenza Lacrimoso. It was by far, the most complex song she had learned. She just hoped that she could do it justice, but had a sinking suspicion that it wouldn't last very long, not if she wanted to keep on living anyways. She had heard of a number of bards who had torn their own throats out in agony when performing the song. Wishing to avoid the same fate, she decided to only sing for half a minute. That should be enough time to see if the others could tell if the song would have a place. It was an old song, but quite obscure as a result of its danger. It was about a mad bard who sought to bring a monster back to life after had killed it, entranced by some sort of residual corruption in the beast's body. It wasn't a very pleasant song, but it fit the mood of the season.

Cadenza Lacrimoso

The song's pace was manic, and lyrics near incomprehensible at the speed she had to sing them. She had tried before, and the song sounded awful at slower speeds, forcing her to keep the pace for as long as she could. She couldn't even last 20 seconds before her throat felt like it was burning. Her singing came to an abrupt halt as she started coughing. Well, she definitely wouldn't be singing anytime tonight. Talking would probably be put on hold for a few minutes, at the very least. Turning to the two others, she gave them a gesture that they would hopefully interpret as 'My throat hurts; I can't talk right now,' instead of 'I'm going to slit your throats and flay the rest of you.'

As the song's echoing faded and she stopped talking, the burning in her throat only seemed to get worse. That was definitely a mistake, she needed to drink something now. Without so much as a word, and although it was terribly rude, she barreled out of the chapel and tried to make her way back to the place the night had started. Hopefully they would have something for her to drink there. In her rush, she left behind most of her musical belongings. Various notes on how songs were meant to be played, scrawlings of lyrics and other things she collected in her travels. While she would mourn her loss of such items, they weren't vital to her. Most of them weren't even useful, just mementos she kept to remind herself.

[[Exit Thread]]

 

It was less music and more a burst of manic noise, the song of a muse and a devil, accelerating until the pattern within the chaos was understandable. Like the Devil’s Trill, except turned up to eleven at the fastest, most inhuman point, Cain could almost envision the story behind the Cadenza Lacrimosa, the madness that possessed a man to bring back the monster he had just slain, obsessed with the strange and unique maledictions that remained residually within the beast’s body. But twenty seconds into it, Surrechis doubled over, coughing violently before rushing out of the chapel, clutching at her throat. Her papers whirled up in her swift escape, leaving only a mess of notes and music sheets in her wake.

Eyes lifting up in astonishment both at Surrechis’s musical talent and her lightning fast exit, Cain nodded slowly after a few moments. “I suppose trying to summon a demon from her vocal cords was more of a strain than she had expected,” the muse reasoned, tidying up the abandoned chapel and stacking up the sheets once more. Flicking through them until he found notes and lyrics similar to the one that she had just sang, the muse set them by the lantern. There was still a tingling in his spine from the twintailed waif’s performance, and it had painted such a dramatic, inspired image within his mindscape that there was no doubt in his mind now. They could definitely use this. The manic speed was almost like rapping, while the words themselves were of a language that he couldn’t comprehend at all.

They could modulate between slow and fast. They could take turns. They could crescendo dramatically. They could scream it out, coughing up blood and shaking people to the core with their intensity. And the story, the beast and the beauty, the interplay between the muse’s eloquence and the beast’s madness, it…

Cain wasn’t a fan of perfection, because it often heralded stagnation once one became satisfied with what they saw as the suitable ‘end result’, but still, the midnight haired muse couldn’t help but get excited over the gift that Surrechis left them. The Cadenza Lacrimosa, the ‘forbidden resurrection song’ that infected those who heard it with a contagion of goosebumps as it left a disturbing but beautiful image scorched in their theatre of the mind.

The man let out a deep breath that he didn’t realize he was holding in.

“This…Lady Harveste, this sounds like a wonderful base to form our song from, doesn’t it?”

 

The song had her pale as a ghost from the intensity. There was no way in her mind she could try to do that- she was far too timid, far too quiet. The manic pace alone would send her into a frenzy if she tried, though the slower parts that felt more like chanting, which seemed far and few between, certainly did feel more up her ally.

Staring idly, mesmerized, she barely realized until it was too late that Surecchis had left. Somehow, her mind couldn't process the song entirely, the intimidation far too strong. Her attempt to recollect herself had made her miss saying any form of farewell, though with her gone, she looked towards @Cain Darlite with a concerned expression.

"I like the idea over all...I feel like if I had enough energy, we could add capoeira for appeal, since it's a mixture of fighting and dancing, much like the song felt. A song that fights for it's place, for it's sanity in an insane conundrum. I didn't know what it meant, but...That's just what it said to me. It was like a warning bell, signalling a storm on the horizon, only to come and go like a hurricane. The calm parts felt like the eye of the storm, which just returned quickly...A song of danger is perfect for us."

She'd said so much in a short period, she was almost scared- but it did seem to show she could handle her breathing enough for that kind of song. Still, her heart was racing far too fast to feel at ease. "Er...I think for me, it'd be easier if we do a back and forth. Are you comfortable with the stronger parts? The ones that are faster and a bit louder, I mean. I'm...Far less capable in that area. Plus, my voice when I sing is a little on the high side comparatively, and so it wouldn't carry as well at speed."

 

Back and forth, with him taking the stronger, more violent parts…that could work. Crossing his legs, Cain thought further and further, doing his best to envision just how the song would work with two people. A rap battle then? Harveste’s own vision of how the maddening aria was a fight could function well in that setting, but at the same time, thug poetry wasn’t really the most ‘musical’ of things, especially if they didn’t have a beat to accompany their rapid fire word slinging. It would still have to be a ‘normal’ song though, and the fact that Surrechis appeared to suffer so much through that entire twenty second sequence made it clear that he wasn’t going to get out of this without bleeding.

Wait, no, there was an easy solution to this, wasn’t there? After all, he was a Muse! Singing two or three songs at once wasn’t all that hard for him at all.


“I’m comfortable with anything you’re uncomfortable with, Lady Harveste,” Cain replied, picking up the sheets and looking them over slowly, “If you can bring your voice to the highest pitch after I release a barrage of heavy, dark notes, the contrast could make for quite an interesting experience. The Cadenza Lacrimosa, going by what Surrechis has written, was a song about a mad muse and a monster, but perhaps we could change it into something more…personal? What about…a father, driven by grief and tormented by once-happy memories? Casting aside ethics and morality, he single-mindedly pursues his grim task, while his daughter from heaven weeps for the mad man he had become?”

A pause, a fist placed against his chin.

“A dance sequence does sound like a marvelous idea though. It can’t be martial, due to the nature of this particular story, but it can definitely be predatorial. Lacing a spell into the dance will allow me to keep our health steady throughout this rigorous performance, and hm…Lady Harveste, could you demonstrate to me your highest pitched singing tone? Try to imagine…fragility, like crystals of snow snapping apart.”

 

Somehow, her eyes were transfixed on the man's figure as he sat deep in thought, legs crossed just so, an unusually elegant sight in her eyes. His posture was pleasant and left her inner self in turmoil, trying to think of the best words she could use to describe the scene before her. She was supposed to focus on their song, but Cain was still an enigma to her, leaving her brain in a trance.

When he finally spoke, she snapped back to reality, but it was clear by her jolting body that nearly fell from the sudden sound that she hadn't been all together with him for some time.

"I see what you're going for, but let me twist it a wee bit more. Rather than simply a mad man, perhaps his grief has transformed his sanity into that of a monster itself, to bring back that which was originally in the script, so to speak. The man's inability to go through the proper stages of grief lead him to hunting the cause of his loss, until his madness becomes nothing more than primal endeavor, akin to a wolf seeking pray. His loss creates more loss, and those losses all cry out in the end."

Her story wasn't actually all that different, she soon realized- but perhaps it wasn't a daughter, in her mind. "We need not even make it that the one weeping is the deceased. It could be someone who has lost him herself due to his madness...Someone who has watched his descent into becoming the beast."

Feeling a tinge of pain in her chest, she realized she was getting a little bit too personal, in some ways. Though it was far different, it also had familiarity to her own life...But also, she felt it would be far more easy to relate to, if a song wasn't changed quite as much. To take the monster out of a song wasn't quite fitting, in her mind. Instead, they should create the monster themselves, out of their own minds.

After she'd gathered her thoughts for a moment, she caught his request to hear her highest tone. To showcase this, she opted not to just find the highest pitch she could, but instead began to do a particular vocal exercise she knew would lead her there.

Slowly, she sang the same term- or rather, the same random syllables- a short sound that had a crescendo from low to high and low again. Each time she repeated it, she got higher, until she finally reached a peak even she didn't believe she'd get to without her throat crackling from the stress. It reached a point that harmed her ears far more than her vocal chords, her breathing never seeming to falter thanks to great care and practice.

Feeling she could do no more as her voice reached the pitch that shouldn't even be audible, the echo caught her and gave her head a soft ache, leading her to become silent. With a deep breath and a hand on her head, she accepted that the previous note was likely her end point. "Skip that last note, but otherwise...That is the highest of my range. I was never quite so high at home, though...To be honest, even I'm surprised."

 

A man that become a monster, while the ‘higher’ voice symbolized a beloved and bereaved that saw him fall deeper and deeper into the abyss…yes, that could work out too, couldn’t it? There were some nice, fancy words there too. ‘Primal endeavor’ was quite an evocative term, after all, and the repetition of ‘loss’ was interesting as well. Really, it was slowly becoming clear to Cain that while he had a fair amount of imagination, Harveste was the one that had an actual talent for this sort of work. Just meant that he had to work harder for that though!

About to reply to her interesting adaptation of the story that had already mutated quite a lot, Cain silenced himself as the twin-tailed Faerin began to sing, her voice climbing and climbing, notes reverberating through the abandoned chapel like the keening of a mourning woman. The windows shook, perhaps from the resonance of her voice, perhaps from the wind outside, while Harveste’s voice actually started to become destructive, a physical pain manifesting from listening to her. It hurt, but there was also a biting edge to the music that she expelled from the depths of her soul. Unlike Cain, who used his entire body as a musical instrument, Harveste’s own song-weaving ability wasn’t restrained to the necessities of Muse magic. There could be imperfections there, occasional cracks reminiscent of heartache. It was a shame, then, that Surrechis had to leave so soon.

With three, they really could do a lot.

“Truly wonderful,” Cain said genuinely, clapping his hands, “I would have been coughing out blood partway through your ascension, Lady Harveste. If you can maintain that high pitch throughout the song, then I would definitely be able to, if you don’t mind such colloquial speech, ‘drop the bass’. Your focus can be that of a ‘beautiful sorrow’, while mine can be of a ‘heart-rending rage’. I still believe, though, that the resurrection portion of the Cadenza Lacrimosa is an important segment.”

His brows furrowed as he continued to tap his fingers against his temple, ideas bouncing off his skull and amplifying.

“That last note, the one that couldn’t be heard, but could be felt. Do you believe you can maintain it during my segments in the later half? If we could generate a dissonance that can be felt, as the resonance of the resurrection runs counter to the dissonance of the man and the person who yearns for his past self to come back, that too could be an interesting effect. I already have machinations in place for how I’ll be casting a healing spell throughout the performance to assuage our voices of the strain of singing, so the lengths we can go for our art will be extended somewhat, and…”

A grin now cracked out from his thoughtful expression.

“…I wouldn’t mind bleeding a bit to enhance the spookiness of the show. We’re aiming to win, right?”

 

"You have songs that can work as healing spells? That's really amazing, Cain! If you use them, I can surely keep that pitch easily, so long as the healing is maintained. It hurts my throat over time, but it's a lot easier here than at home. I normally don't get quite that high...It's actually kind of funny that way. Must be the smaller body."

Though she wasn't actually that much taller in their own world, Harveste still took pride in being not-as-short in reality as her in-game counterpart. If anything, she had come to regret her height a bit, as her height complex still had moments of showing itself. However, if it came up at all, at least she could try to reverse it and make herself feel her size was useful, right?

As he mentioned 'dropping the bass', the girl had started to laugh. "I'm really bad with bass, so while you do that, I'll have a turn to bleed too. Well, maybe I will, maybe I won't. Actually haven't tested that issue out. My senses here are more 'normal' than back home, so..." She shook her head adamantly soon after speaking.

This was not the time to worry about that! "So, shall we finish writing our change of lyrics to fit our theme? Or should we just wing it? Winging it could add to the anxiety we feel once we're in front of the crowd, but too much lack of planning is also bad. I just...Don't know how to plan this out and prepare. I guess you could say the anxiety already kicked in high gear."

Her body shook as she tried to relax herself, humming to the tune Surecchis had shared with them. It was eerie but calming in some strange way, her body being able to relax once the tune stayed embedded in her heart.

"You've heard my range, now let me hear yours. Then, we can finish preparing...And get ready to set out for the real challenge. It stinks it'll be just us, but...Even just us, I'm sure we'll make something beautifully terrifying for them!"

 

“Oh, did I not mention it before?” Cain’s eyebrows bounced upwards, slightly surprised. “I’m not just a musician, Lady Harveste. I’m a Muse, one that sings both on star-studded stages and in the thick of battle. If I were incapable of healing with steps alone, my career would be very short-lived.”

It didn’t change the fact though, that Cain wished he were capable of taking on monsters by himself. After that debacle against the Frankenstein that lurked within Norfova, protecting the laboratory of a mad witch, the midnight-haired muse had been somewhat disappointed with his own combat ability in one-on-one duels. Thoughts for another time though, and he chuckled softly at her comment on a smaller body equating to a higher pitch. There was probably some sort of science that dictated how much of your vocal range came from your vocal chords and how much came from your diaphragm, but ultimately, Cain didn’t care all that much. Surely his own singing voice will be able to reach such heights if he invested more mastery points into it?

“Improvisation, while fun for the actors, isn’t nearly as entertaining for the audience,” the muse replied, recalling the Great Carbuncle and how messy the play got with random, nonsensical twists that were really funny, but really terrible. “Preparation makes for a better performance, Lady Harveste. I must confess though, that there’s no need to change the lyrics at all. After all, the Cadenza Lacrimosa that Lady Surrechis left for us is already in a foreign tongue.”

It was strange, how his Music mastery filled in the missing gaps of knowledge in his mind, giving him nuggets of information that he didn’t possess in real life. Strange, but very useful in this case.

“What we’ll need to do is adjust the notes, while keeping the lyrics the same. The theme can be conveyed through our performance and emotions, but, well…I wouldn’t want this to be a parody of such a maddening song.” Cain grinned at this, knowing how strange such an idea was, when they were already talking about changing the theme or the story behind the song. “And, sure, let’s show everyone else how real singers do it! Blow the roof right off the concert hall with our fresh a capella beats!”

With that, the midnight-haired muse sucked in a breath and sang his song of world end, alternating between the nightmare shrieks of terror and the low roar of the otherworldly snake, as miracles continued to break and break and break into little pieces, punctuated by staccato one-liners rapid-fired with machine-gun like speed, before he let the muse fully take over, an aggressive dance of chest-pops and pelvic twists joining in with the underground song.

In a flash of inspiration, he leapt up at the last beat, stomping his feet downwards, doing a quick spin, and tossing his hat to the side, only for it to bounce back and boomerang into his outstretched hand.

“Not exactly my range, but it’s my most eccentric song,” Cain smiled. “What did you think, Gardener of Lavender Blossoms?”

A second later, the wooden floor, already weakened by age and rot, broke down beneath his feet.

 

He had a good point- the lyrics, though hard to understand for the faerin, weren't far off in story. In fact, it was more just how they interpreted the song. But as he explained his skills, she pondered.

"So music lets you sing, but muse lets you do other things...But did you have to know how to dance beforehand? I was always singing, but I can do more with my songs now than when I just sang for fun without a mastery to have my back."

In fact, she'd only taken up music as a fourth because she was tired of carrying a heavy book whenever she needed to use a spell. Plus, wasn't a singing fairy an adorable idea?

It caused her to unintentionally laugh, right before he started showing her his range with a song she'd never quite heard before. The dance entranced her, but even more did the words of an otherworldly snake, making her remember one of her favorite mythologies on their planet. With a standing ovation, she watched him return to his normal self.

Surprised by being called a new nickname longer than her own, Harveste finally burst into a fit of giggles once more. She really had a lot of nicknames, as she thought about it- and most were plant based, which she liked. "I've never gotten that one before, nor have I heard a song quite so...damaged? That makes it sound like a bad thing, actually, but I mean it differently. If we use the beat of that song for your piece of the Cadenza Lacrimosa, it'll surely fit the monster of a man we intend. By the way, what was that song? It sounded as if it spoke of Ragnarok at points."

Though the curiosity had overwhelmed her, she wouldn't actually force an answer or push for one. They had plenty to do. And actually, it brought to mind a song that might fit her part well too. "I'm a bad dancer, but I do know a song that's far different, but might fit with my range for my verses. Mind taking a listen?"

Another deep breath lead to an aria of operatic sounds, a song she adored from an offbeat group that tended to have dark lyrics with unusually energetic, happy tunes. This tune was a constant array of reaching for the highest pitch, breaking the sound barrier at moments before coming down to surprise the listener for a moment with softer, pleasantly sung evil and pain.

Once they finished their decisions and molded the story within the song to their needs, Harveste raised her fist into the air, letting out a rush of anxious air. She sang a song as they made their way to their stage, using it to calm herself and prepare for the true battle at @Cain Darlite's side.

"Let your inner flower bloom~ let your petals color the room~"

Bonus Concerto