The Last Voyages: IC Inbox

[worthallthis]

There is no voice message here. Better hope you got the right box.

Comments

Re: Music room

[ukan]

"Give me the chorus, and I can look up the rest later," Lark offers. He falters in following the tune on the guitar, waits a beat and catches up.

Re: Music room

[worthallthis]

You're just trying to make him sing, aren't you, Lark. He has your number. Judging by the sidelong look he gives Lark, he wants Lark to be aware he has his number.

But he does it anyway, haltingly, slowing his playing down and leaving out half the chords so he can do both at once. His voice isn't half bad, but it's clearly rough and rusty. He hasn't actually done much singing since, well, since 1945 really.

Re: Music room

[ukan]

What Lark judges singing on has nothing to do with tone or range, but rather on song choice and the emotion behind it. Often, with humans, there isn't much feeling to pick up on. With B he's just surprised and deeply gratified to hear him singing at all.

He's watching him, head slightly tilted, smiling a bit. "I like it."

Re: Music room

[worthallthis]

B shrugs once, trailing off when he reaches the end of the words he remembers. "It's fun. I need more fun songs, I think." Most of the ones he can play are sad, or at least not up-beat. "But I don't remember the rest. It's from. You know. Before." A vague gesture at his head with the flesh hand; before the memories were taken away, clearly.

Re: Music room

[ukan]

"I've been looking into happier songs, actually. Most of the ones I'm partial to were from my teenage years. They're," a small laugh. "Very different from what we've done so far. You'll either like it or hate it."

Re: Music room

[worthallthis]

B gives him a sidelong wary look. It's slightly exaggerated; he's joking. Mostly. "Not sure if I should be worried or not. Songs like what?" Please teach him some bubble gum pop or like some Sugar Ray or something.

[ukan]

"Like..." He rubs his jaw, thinking. "I don't know how to play this one, so I'll just show you the music video. Which were also big when I was a kid."

He pulls one up: "This is Elton John. It's a ballad about overcoming loss."

[worthallthis]

B does kind of rear back at the opening, startled. And gives it a skeptical look as it continues. And frowns at the frankly very confusing imagery and dancing. "That is awful dancing," is what he takes away from it, in the end.

[ukan]

"That sums up the decade I came of age in, yeah," he chuckles. "But what about the music?"

[worthallthis]

He gives it a serious thought for a moment, trying to divorce the music from the very confusing and kind of unpleasant video. "It's okay," he decides. "A little abrasive? But I've heard worse."

As mun watches it again and decides it's one of the gayest videos she's ever seen, damn.

[ukan]

Imagine how people were still surprised when Elton John came out...

"I keep forgetting you're an old man at heart," he teases. And then, shaking his head, "Then again, me showing you this music without any irony marks me as an old man, too. All right, try this one. I'm going to make Steve watch the movie it's for when he wakes up, which means you're obligated to watch it with us."

[worthallthis]

He wants to protest that he's not an old man, he's still perfectly functional, but, well. Maybe in some things. He certainly aches like an old man, Jesus.

He listens, brows coming together seriously. "This one sings better than the other one," he decides. "Less like I want to punch him." Also, the lack of mostly-naked, weird-dancing people in this one is better. So his final decision is a satisfied: "Not bad."

[ukan]

Laughing, "Be careful who you say that to, I think there are people here who would take a bullet for Elton John. All right, so Huey Lewis is on the list. I've been thinking, once we're more used to playing together, we could create some of our own music."

[worthallthis]

That brings him up even more sharply than the opening to Elton John's video. "I don't make things," he protests, confused. Which is not entirely true, he can make origami, and like one or two food dishes. But still! Music is different!

[ukan]

The reaction isn't completely unexpected, so Lark just takes it in stride. "No? Why not?"

[worthallthis]

"I'm not creative. That's. That's Steve, not me." Which is also kinda not true. Bucky Barnes was pretty great at telling and making up stories, but he doesn't remember that. (James-the-train-prisoner was good at telling and making up stories, but that's not him.)

[ukan]

"I meant as a collaborative project. I provide the words, you create the rhythm and the feel to go with them. It becomes a sort of translation."

[worthallthis]

That's still creative. It's still making something. His expression is all but blank as he tries to reconcile the idea with his... his sense of self, whatever that even is. Even if he's a person (a person who cares) he's still been twisted around so he's made for destruction. "I don't know if I can," he finally says.

[ukan]

"If you can't, we have more music to learn than we can ever actually get to," Lark shrugs. No pressure. "But I've seen you analyze the songs I've showed you, and I think you have a better sense for what melody fits what lyric than most people do." A slight grin. "Better than Elton John, anyway."

[worthallthis]

B can't help it: he snorts at that, somewhere between amusement and derision. "Let me think about it," he says. "Maybe after Steve wakes up." And half his brain isn't dedicated to that, on top of the person thing, on top of the graduating thing, on top of the fear. His brain is not in the happiest place right now.

[ukan]

"Fair enough. Here; let me find something easier to listen to." Namely, something easy to remember with very little thought. Something without much darkness to it. Eye of the Tiger.