Mountainside Planetarium - Clutch Only All In The Mood For A Melody

Outfit (barefoot and all)

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Safiya did not know how to play piano. And yet, here she was, playing piano. Or, really, just pressing keys in an order that didn't sound entirely horrible. She could sing well enough to have been in a few musicals in high school, so notes made sense. But, there were like eighty something keys so. How was she supposed to know where they were.

The Planetarium was a pretty cool place to hang out. Somewhere to go when there wasn't anything else to do. A constant supply of meals wandering through, and a safe place to hole up if she didn't feel like driving home. It wasn't often, considering she had a dog to take care of, but the hours were drawing closer to morning, so. She figured she could kill time here and then go curl up in one of the beds.

Maybe she'd have someone to entertain her. Or, really, someone to entertain with these sick piano skills.
Wehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

 Lazarus did know how to play the piano. He was hardly an expert, but he practiced so religiously that by now he had a handful of songs that he could play all the way through. He could read the sheet music flawlessly, he knew where all the notes were and how many of the chords were made. Quite frankly, he might be in love with the act of playing.

 So it should be no surprise to anyone who lingered around the planetarium regularly to find Lazarus making his way to the piano in the common area, new book of sheet music in hand. He was not dressed as sharp as usual, though - his typical choice of button-up and slacks had been replaced with a plain, cotton quarter-sleeve shirt and a pair of jeans. The boots, of course, remained a constant staple for him.

 He was, however, a bit surprised to see Safiya at the bench as he came into the room. Did she play? Or was she just killing time? He considered her carefully, gait slowing some as he approached her, and - she wasn't wearing shoes. Lazarus frowned somewhat, stopping just on the other side of the piano. "Why... are you barefoot."
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Well, well, well! If it wasn't ol' Lazraham Lincoln, owner of ol' Surly Saloon, ol' Lone Stranger himself.

Safiya didn't stop her playing all together when he entered, and fixed him with a raised brow sort of smile as he neared. She spied the book in his hand, and might have asked him if he played, but he asked something first. Her eyes cast down at her feet. Why wouldn't she be barefoot? She twisted her feet, her toes curling. On the top of her left was a faded tattoo of the drama masks. Literally her only tattoo since it turns out when you pick the top of your foot for a first tattoo, it hurts so bad that you're scarred for life from it.

Anyway!

"It's more comfortable than boots." She said as an explanation, and glanced to where she'd left her boots and socks beside the bench. "A lot of musicians say they play better barefoot." Her eyes flickered back up to the man she was pretty glad was still talking to her after the gala thing. "Do you play? Like, actually play?" She motioned toward the book in his hand.
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 She grinned at him, and looked down at her feet, and his gaze followed to her curling toes. Feet didn't particularly bother him, he just thought it a bit strange that she wasn't wearing shoes. It made more sense that they were resting on the floor beside her - for a moment he had thought she just made her way down here without shoes at all.

 He looked to her face again as she spoke. He supposed it was comfortable to not wear shoes sometimes, but... doing so in public just seemed foreign to him. Maybe this was not technically public to some. Lazarus decided to let it go, though he was curious about her claim. Perhaps it was easier to hit the pedals without shoes on.

 "I ain't much of an expert, but yeah. I play," he confessed. "I came down here to practice. I reckon I could teach you a song if you'd like." Did this constitute as not being a stranger? Was he doing good?
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Lazarus hadn't struck her as a musician, but she guessed he had that stony, tortured soul thing down. He offered to teach her, which was surprising and delighting all in one. Safiya straightened on the bench, and scooted over with a child-like eagerness. "Yes! All I know is chopsticks and Mary had a little lamb." She said. Those basic songs people taught kids to play that just sort of stuck with you. Wasn't rocket science.

"How long have you played?" One MILLION years? Probably more like, fifty, or something. He had to have been being modest with not being an expert. She patted the spot beside her for him to sit.
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 Belatedly, but without great delay, Lazarus realized he hadn’t even asked her if she already knew how to play - but her response to his presumptuous question soothed any embarrassment he may have felt. He made a short sound of acknowledgement for what songs she did know, though he was only familiar with Chopsticks. And he didn’t really care for that song, even if it did seem to be a good tune for beginners.

 "A month ‘r two," he said flatly, with a slight shrug of his shoulders, moving to sit in the empty space beside her. He was somewhat uncomfortable with this proximity to her, but focused instead on setting up the sheet music and flipping through the pages. "You know how to read music?" he prompted her.
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Oh, that was. A lot less than she though. Well, it was never too late to try something new. And she could bet living over a hundred years could get boring. Safiya made sure there was a comfortable space between them, not wanting to make him freeze up like he had at their first meeting.

Something about this, though, felt comfortable. Just, maybe a tiny bit more comfortable. He wasn’t putting space between them like a chruch boy would a hooker. It was easy to find some comradery in it. Something she’d been needing lately, given the huge shift of circumstances. Raziyya was nice, but she was still the gateway between Safiya’s human life and her undead life.

“Mhm, I was in theatre and choir.” She said to his question, eyeing the book with an easy curiousity.
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 Theater and choir. Clearly she had an appreciation for the arts; something Lazarus had never really been into - with the exception of novels - until quite recently. The book before them was titled Best Piano Classics: 50 Famous Pieces, but the man hadn’t really perused the pages before he bought it to confirm whether they were truly the “best” pieces. It didn’t really matter to him as much as expanding his horizons did.

 Part of him immediately regretted offering to teach her a song. This was an activity better left to the likes of Edvin, who had a millennia’s worth of patience. He sighed quietly at the thought. "Alright. You pick your song then." It seemed better that she choose her own challenge.
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Oh, she had to choose. There were fifty to choose from, and not one sounded familiar. Well, there was Moonlight Sonata, and Clair De Lune, but those were booooooring. Safiya pursed her lips as she flipped through the pages, doing her best to keep from touching Lazarus as she reached over him to turn them. Eventually, one caught her eye, based solely on the name.

A slender finger tapped the page. ”Rhapsody in Blue. Sounds hot.” He’d likely get all weird about her words, but she giggled anyway. “Do you know this one?” She asked, her head tilting so she could look at the side of his face. It was cute, how there were still freckles on his face after so many years devoid of sunlight. She wondered what he would have looked like back when he was human, after a day of working outdoors. He likely got pretty tan, and his freckles were probably by the thousands. Now he was just pale, which was pleasing to the eye in a different way.
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 Safiya wouldn't have to worry about accidentally touching him - Lazarus was very aware of his positioning, leaning away just enough to avoid her arm. Eventually she settled on a song, and an unfamiliar one at that. He narrowed his eyes at the title, scanning the rows of notes as she spoke. He didn't respond immediately, in case he had heard it before and he didn't remember, but the sheet music before his eyes wasn't correlating to any sound in his head.

 Quite abruptly, he realized she was staring at him, and he glanced at her quickly, somehow able to keep his expression neutral. "No," he informed her simply. "Never heard it." He looked away from her, down at the keys. "Alright. So, the keys." He set his hand to the far end of the piano on his side, and his fingers would cascade smoothly across the ivory teeth. "This piano starts at A. The notes go down to G before startin' over again. The pitch gets higher as you travel to your end." He wouldn't lean across her to continue the scale, stopping just a few keys away from her, glancing at her face again to see if she was understanding.
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Oops, had she been staring too long? She didn’t look away when he glanced at her. She’d been subject to enough bullshit superiority complexes from people to even think about looking away when someone met her eye. Always be the last to blink. Overbearing, maybe, but she had a hard time giving a shit.

She did look this hand as he looked down, though. His fingers were long but squared, masculine in a way that Safiya could appreciate. Sue her for still thinking he was hot, even if he was quite literally the opposite. So cold. Physically, and in how he held himself. But she felt like she could see through it. One of those guys that built up a shell around a gushy inner center. She wasn’t in the business of smashing through that shell, but maaaaybe she could convince it to crack a little. Anyway, we were learning, Safiya.

A to G, got it. She smiled at the notes he played, and when he stopped a few keys away from her, she moved a hand to place her fingers against the ones after his. She didn’t mean for it to happen, but the side of her hand did brush his. Oops. Maybe if she just ignored that it happened he wouldn’t freeze up. So she pushed on down the line of keys, all the way until she reached the end. Tink!

“Easy enough.” Safiya said with a little smile to herself and a nod. She felt his eyes on her, but she kept her gaze down on the keys, then looked to the sheet before them. She was thankful she understood sheet music, or this would all be so much more daunting. Then again, she never was really intimidated by new things. It was something fun, nothing serious. No matter how serious the man beside her wanted to act like he was.
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 She seemed keen enough on the lesson, he noticed as he looked at her. His eyes went down to her hand as it moved, a little thrill of something like shock passing up his arm as her skin brushed his. It passed quickly, easy to rationalize; just an accidental but unsurprising bit of contact that could happen when two people shared a keyboard. He focused instead on her fingers rolling up the scale, the bright sound of the final key being tapped. Easy enough. It seemed likely that she would get this hang of this as quickly, if not more so, than him.

 "You'll play these notes with your hand," he pointed first at one set of notes, and then another, "As I plays these." Assuming they both understood the tempo of the notes, this should go pretty smoothly - but that neither of them had played this song before could make things a little tricky, sloppy. Still, he would wait until she moved for the first note to hit his, doing his best to stay on par with her.
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In retrospect, they should have probably not picked such a complex song. Maybe one he already knew. She could read music, yeah, and keep tempo, but as she started on the first notes she felt pretty lost. She did her best to focus on the higher notes that were corespondent to the keys on her side, but she missed a few here and there. It was messy, but she found herself grinning ear to ear.

At one particularly bad series of mistakes, Safiya let out a little, “Aaaarrrgh.” Of dismay that she punctuated with a laugh. Her fingers dragged across the keys, smashing in a bunch of random notes. “We can just make up our own notes.” She said with a snicker, and moved a hand to brush her hair from her face. Another glance up at the side of his face was stolen as she sighed and paused for a second to try and recover from her failure.
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 For as much as he had been practicing, this song was... a challenge, for some reason. Maybe it was because he was trying to stay on par with the woman beside him. He liked to think so. She was hardly nailing her notes, either, which should have made him feel better; it sort of did, but he was still more preoccupied with his own failure.

 Her lightheartedness was, perhaps strangely, appreciated. He could relate to her growl of frustration, her stroke of fingers across the keys. The edge of his mouth ticked up in a little smirk, for just a moment, and he shook his head as it dissipated. His fingers moved tentatively to the keys once again, beginning to pluck the notes. Even as he played, he managed to speak to her. "We can try another song if you'd like."
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She caught that smirk, mister. It wouldn't kill him to let one linger for more than a few seconds. She wouldn't comment on it, but she sure as hell would return a bright grin right back. Her eyes flickered down to his fingers on the keys as he spoke to her. "Mm, let's do one you know." She said with a nod. "So you can tell me how bad I'm doing with confidence." She also privately liked how he spoke when he gave her instruction. There was a studious glimmer to his tone when he taught. It was pretty clear he enjoyed this. He wasn't much for expression of anything but the tiniest smirks or stone cold frownie faces, but she could sense it. Or maybe she was making it up. She'd like to think she wasn't.
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 So she would like another song. It came as a bit of a relief to him, and he huffed a sound that was akin to a laugh. "You're awful," he said, but without any venom to his words. Lazarus picked up the book and pinched the spine between his fingers, using the other hand to bend the back of the book just enough to make the pages flip apart quickly. The blessing of supernatural vision pretty well allowed him to catch the titles as they flicked past him, and after a few seconds he settled on one that looked familiar: Nocturne op.9 No.2 by Chopin.

 "Nocturne," he began, definitely butchering the foreign word with his thick accent, "is French for nocturnal." There was some amusement in his tone as he gave her that little fun fact. Maybe she already knew that. "It ain't the simplest of songs, but it's nice 'n slow." He set the book up again and pointed at it again. "You start here," he instructed her. The first few notes were slow and easy, and he felt confident in his ability to join in after a few moments.
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Safiya's jaw dropped in mock offense at his critique. "Teach me, then!" She countered with a playful wrinkle of her nose at him. She watched as he flipped through the book, idly keying the piano before her as she waited. When he landed on the one he wanted, she straightened up and looked over the sheet. Oh, she'd heard Nocturne! "Fitting." She hummed. Get it? Because they were vampires? Heh. That was probably the joke he was making.

She eyed the notes she was meant to play. Okay. Okay, she could do this. Maybe. She just had to remember which key was which note. It was pretty straight forward, since she knew he scales and all that. So. Here goes. She started in, at a slower tempo that normal, and finding it a little difficult to look up at the notes and down at the keys in a timely manner. Her fingers were nimble, though, and she smiled as he joined in with the lower notes beside her. Her head nodded as they worked through the first through lines, a soft smile on her face as she hesitated for a moment on a more complicated combination of notes. Her eyes squinted, and she moved her other hand to join her first in attempt to get the notes down. When she did, her forearm bumped his, and she winced some as she glanced to him. "Sorry," Last thing she wanted was for him to get all awkward. She was having fun. This was nice.
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 Lazarus and Safiya did not know each other well yet, but he definitely felt confident in thinking that the young woman had a good sense of humor. Far better than his own, at any rate - she was a much better sport than he was.

 It was a little extra pleasing to see her struggling with the keys, only because it reminded him of himself not so long ago. He at least had the notes memorized well enough now that he didn't have to look at his fingers as he played anymore. Her pace was a little choppy, but easy enough to keep up with, and he found it was easier to be patient than he had originally anticipated.

 When their forearms touched, he did stiffen some. Safiya, apparently pretty privy to his awkward behavior already, was quick to apologize. It was just an arm brush. He glanced at her, rolling his shoulders as a way of loosening his body some. "S'alright," he assured her quietly. "Happens when you share a piano." He looked away from her then, and began to play the next sequence of notes. Slowly.
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There was that line again. Invisible, she was convinced, because she never knew what side she was on. He brushed off her apology, which wasn't entirely needed anyway. It would have been fine if she hadn't said anything, probably. But here they were. And she felt awkward just leaving it at that, so. As she peered at the notes and the keys and her fingers, she managed some words. "I know I can... uh,-" She paused as she butchered some notes, "I can be a lot. Like overwhelming and stuff. I don't wanna do that to you, though." She spared him a glance, and her performance suffered for it.

"Boundaries are important." Not an entirely hard pill to swallow, but one that sure as fuck liked to get stuck in her throat sometimes. She'd lost friends too many times, though. She wasn't going to drive away someone that had the potential be a guy she actually liked. Especially since making friends that weren't vampires was pretty much going to be next to impossible now.
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 Lazarus didn’t expect much conversation to come of that - but as they moved back to the keys, Safiya was speaking again. It was admittedly distracting, and Lazarus felt a twinge of frustration for it at first; but as he listened to her self-aware words, he softened slightly. Maybe she truly did not mean to be so... imposing. He considered her with a sidelight glance, recalling their last encounter with ease. He still didn’t know her well enough to trust her, but... there had been a time when he considered Edvin in such a light, too, and the old vampire had easily proven his worth over time. Perhaps she would be no different.

 "Yep," he agreed quietly after a moment, head nodding as he looked down at his fingers again. He was not afraid of her, he told himself. Over a hundred years his junior, young and weak despite her awful powers. He could kill her in an instant, if he needed to, he decided. He was not afraid of her. He said none of this - merely went back to playing the notes before him.
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Yep. Sometimes Lazarus was a piece of wet cardboard. But that was okay. The topic wasn't particularly comfortable to discuss. She turned her eyes back to the keys, and after the third time of messing up what was supposed to be the prettiest part of the piece, she huffed and pulled her fingers away. Her hands dropped to her lap, and she nodded to the keys. "You finish it, I want to hear the song the way it's meant." She said, and scooted a bit to give him the room to reach both sides of the piano without having to reach over her too much. Also, she had a plan.
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 Lazarus moved carefully over his own notes, but his attention was more occupied by Safiya’s delicate fingers completely botching her part. Eventually she gave up, and asked him to finish the song. He didn’t mind obliging such a request, so with a short nod, he would carry on. His eyes trailed along the lines of music, fingers moving across the keys with only the occasional error that he hoped would be easily missed by his fluid continuation.
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Lazarus transitioned right into taking over, and Safiya was happy to sit back and watch as his fingers deftly played the notes. If he messed up, she didn't notice. It was easy to just lose herself in the notes, and she found herself nodding her head as her eyes flickered closed. In her mind's eye, she imagined dancing to the music. She'd taken ballet in elementary school, but she was by no means a dancer. So she was a lot better in her head. She imagined ribbons and glitter and twirling en point. A soft smile curled her lips as she opened her eyes again. They were clouded now, and she focused in on the ledge of the piano before them, a bit to the side of where the sheet music was.

A tiny, shimmering figure appeared, just a few inches tall. It lacked specific features, but the skin was definitely brown. She wore a white leotard and glittery tutu, and balanced on her toes. To the music, she leaped and twirled. In her hands were ribbons made of shimmering light. She danced down along the length of the piano, quick to pass by the sheet music so she didn't get in the way. Magical, if she did say so herself. She fucking loved her power.
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 It really was a pretty song. Lazarus realized belatedly that he did quite enjoy it, although it wasn't exactly a favorite. It tended to get lost in the sea of songs he was trying to consume as quickly as possible. He was far from memorizing it, at any rate; he had to focus on the notes, but he couldn't help but notice the little ballerina just on the wooden lip of the piano near the book. It was distracting, but he felt that any lapse in playing would result in the end of her dancing. So, he did his best to watch it from the corner of his eye as he read the notes.

 When the song ended, he would seek the illusion with his eyes, if it was still going. Then, he looked to Safiya, struck with a dull sort of realization that she must do this sort of thing just for fun. How... odd. In a refreshing kind of way. It was almost endearing. Youthful.

 "What happens if you do that too much?" he pried quietly.
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She would keep up the little illusion for the duration of the song, and when it was surmounting to an end, she really kicked it into over drive. Purely for her own enjoyment, really, considering Lazarus was focusing on his playing. Still, the ballerina dove and twirled and leaped. Glitter everywhere. It was pretty rad. When the final notes finished, the figure finished in a little plie and a bow. She kept it up so that Lazarus could get a good look, and even threw in the image of tiny tiny tiny little roses being thrown at the ballerina's feet.

At his question, her focus shifted a bit, and the roses and ribbons flickered out of existence. "When I was human, I would pass out if I did too much for too long. Now I just get dizzy. But this is small." She said, and put her hand down so that she could pilot the image to leap onto it. She turned in her seat to bring the little dancer a bit closer to Lazarus' face. "If it's for too long, sometimes I'll check out. Lose track, you know?" Her white eyes flickered once up to Lazarus' face. A tiny smirk formed at the corners of her lips. The ballerina, featureless save for dark hair pulled into a bun, bent at the waist and blew a little kiss toward the man across from her before snapping out of existence. Safiya's eyes fluttered a moment, and their natural dark brown replaced the ivory color.

"What happens with you?"
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 It was a strange but beautiful little thing. Even the dainty little flowers thrown at her feet from a tiny, invisible crowd were undeniably charming. He listened to her answer, considered the drawbacks that came with all supernatural powers. How unfortunate that it was the way it was. Getting dizzy wasn't too bad, though, right? He watched her hand cart the tiny woman closer to him, listening still to her words. He hummed quietly. Apparently they couldn't lose consciousness aside from falling into dead sleep, so maybe light-headedness and spacing out weren't too bad.

 Lazarus breathed a quiet sound that was something like laughter as the tiny ballerina blew him a kiss. "Headaches. Bloodlust." He looked down at his fingers on the keys, playing a few soft notes. "That's about it."
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That was a laugh, and she would note that for eternity. He wasn't always Mr. Stone Cold, mkay? As for his drawbacks, her's sounded like she was being a pussy in comparison. But honestly, she hadn't been a vampire long enough to have to start thinking about bloodlust if she did too big of an illusion. She'd been fine with the horse. "Man, that sucks." She said as her eyes trailed down to his fingers. "What's that like? Bloodlust?" She approached that question tentatively, her tone like a child who was asking how death worked. Morbid, cautious curiosity. It was a question she hadn't asked Raziyya. For all the information the woman had offered her, she some how felt maybe she would find a way to sugar coat it. Not that she was the coddling type, but Safiya didn't expect her to reveal all the gruesome details. Maybe she was just assuming things. But she trusted Lazarus to be forthright, and he seemed like he always was.
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 Her question took him by surprise. He drew a long breath to prepare for words, but paused. It was hard to explain, he realized as he looked at her youthful face. She was so new to this - chances were, she would experience for herself sooner than later. One hand dropped to his lap, while the other rubbed across his chin and then around to the back of his neck. "Well. It's uh. Your mouth starts to hurt, your jaw 'n your gums. The thirst is unbearable. All you can think about is the thirst, just gettin' your teeth into somethin'. You just want to brutally murder the first living thing that crosses your path, you're so damn angry. And your hands get all crazy - your fingers turn into great big claws. Everything hurts and just pisses you off." He sighed, shaking his head. Bloodlust was always a stark reminder that he was far beyond human. "For me, anyway. I dunno if it's different for everyone." Lazarus looked to the young woman again. If her sire was worth her salt, she would help keep Safiya out of compromising situations that could lead to that.
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Listen, she'd seen videos and pictures. She'd looked pretty closely at the grotesque transformation. The monsters. But it had always seemed so... unreal. Like looking at pictures of a shark attack. Scary, yeah, but distant because it wasn't happening to you. To hear it from the mouth of someone that had lived it. Someone like her. It was real. She couldn't imagine his face all unhinged or his deft fingers elongated and twisted into claws. She sure as hell couldn't imagine herself like that.

She... should have been more afraid than she was. Not that she... didn't acknowledge that it was terrifying. It was definitely something to fear, to be apprehensive about. Bizarre and unnatural. And yet. She accepted it. Just as she had accepted everything else that had come with this new life style. It was a fact, this monstrous form she could and likely would soon take at some point or another. That thought would have scared her shitless as a human, being told 'hey, you have the potential to turn into some crazed, blood thirsty beast.' And yet. Here she was. Nodding along in some humbled acceptance that she didn't quite understand. Weird. Maybe she was braver than she thought. There was no way for her to know that that wasn't entirely the case. No way to know that Raziyya's advice to "embrace this life" had been a lot more than just helpful encouragement.

"And how does it end? When everything around you is dead? Is there... I don't know, a way to stop it?" She wasn't even entirely sure how it started. She should have been asking Raziyya this stuff. Maybe the woman would even be hurt that she wasn't. But, well. It was too late now.
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 Her question was a good one. Lazarus wasn’t sure he was really qualified to answer it. His shoulders rolled in a shrug, posture straightening some. "I guess when you get your fill, or... run outta gas. I’m not positive. I figure the best way to stop it is just. Not doin’ whatever you’re doin’ that makes you feel like you might lose your head." Maybe that wasn’t really an answer. "I don’t think I’m the right person to educate you on the matter."
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At least it wasn't like rabies, which just ended in someone having to shoot the animal suffering from it. There were ways to avoid it, if certain things triggered it. But from what she'd grasped, sometimes it happened without you being fully prepared for it. She nodded, and absently moved a hand to bump harmlessly against his upper arm. "You're awful." She joked, using his own words against him with a playful wrinkle of her nose. But before he had time to worry if she was being genuine or not, her lips stretched into a thankful grin. "No, you're being helpful. Thank you." A little encouraging nod.
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 For what little information he could rightly give, it seemed Safiya could use it - at least, she was paying close attention to his words. He distantly wondered just how new she was, and how much she had to learn. The answer was, obviously, a lot, but he was hardly qualified to help her much beyond piano playing.

 He stiffened some as she swatted his arm, even knowing it was a well-meaning gesture. She was probably just being friendly, but even so, her joking was better received. He sighed an unnecessary breath in the wake of her words. "Much obliged," he said quietly, shifting his weight on the bench.
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Shit. She'd really just fucking done that after telling him she didn't want to cross boundaries. She wanted to like, shove her hands under her ass, but it would just make everything more awkward. So. Instead. "Play another song," She requested with a little tilt of her chin toward the piano. "I don't want to keep you from practicing." That's what it seemed like he'd been meaning to do. "Can I listen for a bit, though?" He was good, and she found she actually really liked watching someone play.
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 She wanted another song. That was something he could very well do. He glanced up at the music book, considered reaching up to look for another song that might be easy. He hadn't memorized very many songs yet, so, that seemed to best option. "Yes ma'am," he drawled softly. Part of him truly desired company. But. That was it. As such, he would turn the pages, landing on Missa Solemnis. He had read somewhere that it was one of Beethoven's most intimate songs. He kind of liked that. With a straightening of his posture, he would begin to key the notes.
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Yes ma'am. Oh, she liked that.

Safiya smiled somewhat fondly as she scooted a bit so she could rest an arm against one end of the piano and prop her head up with her palm to a cheek. The song he chose was slow and pretty, and she decided it might have made her sleepy if it were possible for her. Instead, she settled on letting her eyes follow his fingers, and the notes ring in her ears. There were times she would create more tiny illusions as he played. Just steamers of disembodied light that swirled with the music, or little music notes drifting up from the keys he pressed, nothing too distracting. She would sit in comfortable silence as he practiced, and when he was finished and she was finding herself somewhere to settle in for deadsleep, she would find herself warmed in a way she didn't know how to describe. It was a good night.

/fade <3
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