apocalypsehowcomm | Log - Moving Up (Closed)

Who: Mercy Graves, Kurapika Kurta, and Aelwyn Abernant
When: Mid-January
Where: Apartment B3
Summary: Mercy moves in with some new roommates.
Warnings: Will add as they come up!

The amount of moving Mercy Graves has done in the past eight months is more than she has done in the entire rest of her life combined. From her lifelong home in Evergreen Abbey. To the Spring Tide temple. To ADI, Apartment A1, and now she finds herself at Apartment B3, picking up the meager pieces of her life and setting them down somewhere else. At least she's with friends. A friend. She doesn't know Kurapika as well as Aelwyn, but she intends to remedy that as she can. To get the latest gossip on his girlfriend, if nothing else, really.

Her possessions are few, but she does bring a few of the touches the others had left behind, as well. There's a small, potted herb garden for the balcony... whenever spring comes around again. Right now it's just pots with soil in them. Her sewing machine is brought over next and set up in her room with her sewing supplies, including fabrics Kurapika will likely have seen before. And then her clothes. Not much, but a respectable set of vestments. She takes Monika's electronic keyboard, as well. Mercy can't claim she really knows how to play it, but maybe she'll make it a mission to wind down between horrible things happening. She leaves Ren and Akechi's things as they are to be collected by ADI and held. It feels wrong taking them when they aren't actually gone, just away.

In any case, this is a new chapter. One that will hopefully not be as horrible as the last has been. She's mostly over the seal-based nightmares. There are... other things that have displaced them, though. Dying to the roosters. It's unfortunate she's not going to be able to do down pillows or blankets anymore, but so be it. She might be found arranging pots on the balcony or starting up an evening meal--she'd told Aelwyn she'd pull her weight, or even plunking away at the electronic piano she's set up in her room, trying to figure out how it works. Wherever she is, Mercy has a bright smile for either of her new roommates. "Thanks again for having me! It's nice seeing folk around when I ain't working."

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Now that Yuri too has roommates, he can't be spending so much time in her place. It's not proper for a man to be over a women's house so often, so he refrains as of late. It's easier to catch Kurapika at home, and he's thankful that he's able to use his muscles to help Mercy on the move.

Eventually, the smell of food hits his nostrils, and he knows for a fact that this is not Aelwyn's doing. He arrives, coming towards the newcomer with a small smile.

"Smells good."

Aelwyn steps into the living room, stretching her arms up with a yawn. She just got done updating her notes. The smell is what drew her out of her cave, and she looks over to the kitchen, surprised that it's not Kurapika.

Oh, right, she said she'd cook. Aelwyn feels a little bad that everyone here can cook except her. At least in her first roommate situation Frontal was just as much of a manchild as she was.

"What's cooking?" She says as she passes by.

"Leek and potato soup, 'long with six bean salad, and warm rolls with butter! My granny's specialty for a winter night. Thought we could do with something warm. Hoping there's something in there the two of you can eat. I ain't thought to ask about what you like..." She's realizing the flaw in her plan of 'just make dinner without being asked.'

"I can make something else if it ain't to your liking." She can save the extra for the week. Waste not!

[Aelwyn steps into Mercy's room one day while she's messing around with the piano. Or, the electric piano, apparently.]

You know how to play?

[It doesn't sound like it, but it's certainly possible that she's just fiddling with it.]

Mm... sort of? I can play this!

[She plunks out the "ABCs" then offers Aelwyn a rueful smile.]

Monika taught me. Said it was a song young'uns sing here to learn their letters. This was- She left it behind when she didn't come home. I know Ren's not... gone, so I ain't touched his things, but thought I shouldn't ought to leave this by its lonesome. I don't want ADI selling it if they find Monika.

Oh! Uh... sorry. Was I being too loud with this? Don't rightly know how to turn it down...

[She returns the smile with one of her own. Though it fades a bit at the mention of Monika and her disappearance. It's not like she was particularly close to Monika. She actually got the sense that Monika didn't particularly like her, but she understands the feeling.

Angelo's little decorations for the living room still stay even after she's gone through entire cycles of roommates, some of which were rarely ever present.]

I mean, if Ren and Akechi have left them here, I'd say they're free for the picking. [She wants to steal Ren's stuff.] But yes, I understand that.

Oh, no, you're fine. I can't play the keyboard specifically, but I was taught the piano by my mother. Want me to teach you a few basic songs?

[Mercy brightens at the offer.]

I'd love that! If you got the time. Monika could play with both hands, but it seems right complicated using the both.

[A pause.]

Well, for that, anyway. But I never learned to read music, just my letters, so it's all memorizing for me.

We can save both hands for after you've had some practice just with the one. I'll admit, I'm a bit rusty, so don't judge me too much if I mess up once or twice.

[She smiles, knowing that Mercy wouldn't actually do that, but still feeling the anxiety anyway.]

Elves don't use sheet music generally, so I can teach without it. [She sits next to Mercy and flexes her fingers, getting them into position to play a song she knows off by heart.] This one's called Ealun'rae, it means 'Song of the Rising Moon.'

[She begins to play, and it is actually simpler than you'd expect with such a fancy title. Elves are just always A Little Bit Much. It's supposed to induce a feeling in your heart similar to the sensation of watching a sun rise, but Aelwyn's a high elf wizard raised by beaurocrats in a foreign country and is currently several multiverses away from home, so it gets a bit lost in translation.]

[Mercy watches intently, and even if it's a simple song, it's something she can't play, yet, which makes it a delightful thing.]

'Song of the Rising Moon.' We got something like that, but it's... well, it's a drinking song we'd sing at the Abbey at the turning of the year. 'At the Rising of the Moon.'

[She sings just a little bit, and while Mercy isn't a singer, she's passable enough not to be terribly off-key.]

As we wander through the world, on this darkened winter's night.
The children are all dancing and the stars are shining bright.
One more word must now be spoken out or sung to an old tune,
Let's be friends this New Year coming at the Rising of the Moon.

Hah... can't put that to the piano, of course.

[She smiles.] I'm not sure if that says something about coincidences or just the lack of imagination that goes into naming songs.

I'm sure you could put it to piano. Well, a more skilled musician than either of us could anyway.

[Drinking songs at an abbey, huh? Wild. Her perception of human religions generally just boils down to the catholic church.]

Okay, so... [She'll just gently pick up Mercy's hand and direct it towards the starting keys for the song she just played and starts to run her through the starting notes.] Got it?

I... think so.

[Mercy runs through the progression a few more times to be sure, then nods.]

Aye, got it well enough! Is this your favorite song, by the way? Didn't think to ask. Well, favorite song you can play, I guess?

Log - Moving Up (Closed)

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