IC Inbox: In the Night

[worthallthis]

[There is no message for the voice inbox. Just a beep.]

Comments

@Lucky

[mindofathief]

Guess what
The ferry came
I got the collection of every song my band played
All of them

Text @ Soldier, an hour or two later

[worthallthis]

[Clearly Duster is sharing this so that he can share the music, right?]

That sounds great. How much music is that?

Text

[mindofathief]

It’s about fifty songs
Want to meet up at the invincible

[worthallthis]

[Fifty songs, all jazz, all new music. That sounds like heaven.

However. They do kinda have a vigil to keep, here.]

Church instead?

Text to action

[mindofathief]

Yes

He takes his lantern and tablet from his current resting spot in the community center and shuffles through the thinning snow towards the church. The light swigs from side to side unevenly as he approaches the front doors.

He knocks.

Action!

[worthallthis]

There's a pause, and then Soldat's voice sounds kind of amused when they call over, "It's a public place. You don't have to knock."

They're sitting on one of the pews near the back, combat booted feet propped up on the pew in front of them, a notebook currently being shut on their upraised knees.

[mindofathief]

Duster pushes the door inward and cranes his neck to find Soldat in this large, cavernous room. The shrine back in Tazmily didn't have so many hiding spaces.

"I wondered if anyone was sleeping here tonight." Memories of Masaomi huddled under the table doused in red light came to mind. "Did anything interesting happen so far?"

[worthallthis]

"There shouldn't be anyone sleeping in here. It's drafty, and people come here after they die. If people are sleeping in here, there's room at the inn now. At the hotel." Soldat does not approve of sleeping in public places, because that's not safe or comfortable, and where do people even shower?

Couch-surfing is fine, of course-- they did that for months before Aziraphale and Crowley gave them a room-- since it includes access to a proper bathroom and kitchen and all, plus company.

They shake themselves a little. "Nothing interesting. It's been quiet. I only stay a couple hours, but. Not a lot of people come in here."

[mindofathief]

"Well, it is a church." He opens up the Songbird App on his phone. "So, what are you thinking for music? Something upbeat? Slow?"

[worthallthis]

Soldat retrieves their own tablet from an internal pocket. "Are your songs on Songbird then? I have music that's not on Songbird. If you want it. Recorded from the Night Market jukebox." Which means the quality is not perfect, but it's still pretty good.

[mindofathief]

A nod. "It's like listening to them in-person, if you were a giant and watching a tiny room perform." It's the best metaphor he can think of when listening music from a small devise instead of hearing it live.

"How about some rock?" He asks, but without waiting for an answer, he plays one of DCMC's most popular pieces, one with a clear bassline starring him.

[worthallthis]

Though Soldat's favorites are pretty clear, they've been doing a lot of experimenting with music over the past few months, finding new genres they like and can listen to outside of jazz and swing. This isn't really like most of them. They tilt their head with an intent expression, listening. "What is that instrument?" they ask curiously. "The high-pitched electronic one." They've heard synths before, but in a more 80s kind of way, not in a video-game kind of way, like this.

[mindofathief]

"The keyboard? Shimmy can make almost any kind of sound from those when he changes the settings." It's the wonders of electricity that his bandmate has managed to harness to create wild music. "The soundset he uses here is based off of an instrument called an organ."

[worthallthis]

"Oh. I know that. I know an organ." They pause, blinking at the music. "It doesn't sound like that. It's much bigger." Soldat may be thinking of a full pipe organ, like in a church.

[mindofathief]

"Like how big?" asks Duster, who hasn't seen a real organ in his life.

[worthallthis]

"I don't know. Bigger. Fuller. Rounder sound, more reverberation." Soldat doesn't have a memory of a physical organ, just the way it sounds in a big cathedral. Or on vinyl in a Christmas album in Steve's house. Something. They don't have much context, is the thing.

They pull out their own tablet, flip it open, and start searching through the music. "Here. Like this." And a Bach song on a full pipe organ starts playing.

[mindofathief]

That's a loud instrument. It sounds big, at the very least. He doesn't know how many speaks something like that would have to be hooked up to if it were the size of a piano.

"That's-" Duster can't think well when he's witnessing an incredible new piece of music. "Wait, I heard that song before. Part of it, anyway. What's it called?"

[worthallthis]

"The file name says the musician is Bach and the song is called 'Toccata and Fugue'," Soldat answers. "I know the song, too, but I think. I think I heard it on a record player, not in person. I remember there being vinyl noise."

[mindofathief]

"That's strange. I heard part of this in a symphony back home, written by a ghost. But...he said it was all original." His brow furrows. "Did he use part of Toccata and Fugue on purpose?"

Oh, Duster had no clue just how many classical pieces Lord Passion used in his work.

[worthallthis]

"I don't know. Either he lied. Or maybe he is the ghost of Bach?" They're not sure if Duster is even from Earth, to be honest, it might be a huge coincidence, some kind of someone-in-the-multiverse-must-write-this-music kind of deal.

[mindofathief]

"He called himself Mr. Passion and then Lord Passion. The only other thing of note was his hair." Most ghosts looked the same - white sheet, similar faces - except for this one that wore a suit.

[worthallthis]

"Passion." Soldat looks vaguely skeptical, not of Duster's story, but of anyone who would call himself that. "Are you even from Earth? Maybe there is no Bach on your world.

[mindofathief]

"I really don't know. All I know is that the world I came from used to be big before we all moved to the Nowhere Islands." He knows so little about his own history, and now that he's dead, he can't ever go back and ask Leder for more details like they had planned.

"Maybe an opal here would have a memory from when I was a kid. That's all I can hope for."

[worthallthis]

Soldat blinks at him once, over the continuing sound of the music. "You don't remember being a kid?"

Wait, wait. Just how many people are missing big patches of their memory, in this place?

[mindofathief]

"I remember...some of it. The rest, when I was really small...that was replaced with other memories." He tries to come up with a number, solely based on some rough ages. "Twenty years ago? Nineteen? Everyone had their memories re-written back then."