Right, but... Can you act?
Salamandastron: Crater
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You are on the very top of the mountain of Salamandastron: a large, bowl-
shaped crater. The crater is not smooth, quite the contrary in fact.
Numerous boulders and large chunks of rock are strewn around randomly,
making the crater top just as craggy as any of the mountainside. The
crater provides an outstanding view of the surrounding country. The sea
sprawls off to the west as far as the eye can see, and north and south
along the endlessly rolling sand dunes. In the distant east, a tinge of
green is just visible from this height, marking the vegetation in the
foothills of the Western Mountains.
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Visible Exits:
[N]ortheast [M]ountainside [Down] to Third Level
Thad is alone, big surprise. He's got his lute up here with him, and it doesn't really matter how cold it is outside. He has to get his practice in, and it's much easier to practice when no one else is around. He's strumming a few notes and chords, humming and singing murmured jibberish along with it. He's in the process of songwriting, as evidenced by the bound notepad folded face down over his knee, a thin, pointed piece of charcoal tucked into its fold.
Tyree hasn't been up here but a couple of times during training, when the sergeants thought it would do the recruits good to get some 'perspective' on their position on the mountain and in the world. Perhaps it's for old time's sake, or just to locate a place where he hopes to find some solitude, that Tyree comes up now, his ears twitching once they catch music and humming on the wind. He steps up onto a craggy rock and looks around, till he spies... "Thad? Is that you?"
Doing a quick run up and down the neck of the lute after he's greeted, Thad looks up to see who's hailing him. "Oh, hey, Tyree." The buck adjusts his glasses, giving the other a small wave. "Didn't think anybeast else would be up here."
"Me neither," Tyree answers with a tilt of his head. "Odd that we'd run into each other tryin' ta' avoid other hares, then, wot?" he asks, coming forward but stopping a respectful distance away, paws crossed behind his back. "You play?"
Speaking of avoiding other hares. Blake steps out into the crater, maybe looking to do just that, and then stops after a few steps. She snorts. "Populah place, huh?"
"Little bit," Thad responds, finishing with chords and now just running little scales up and down the full range of his instrument. Impractical noodling, but it's therapeutic, as well as something to do with your paws during conversation. "Do you, or something?" He peeks past Tyree, spotting Blake. "Heh. Guess so," he answers her with a little shrug. Strum, strum.
"Three is a crowd," Tyree remarks in response to Blake, though he barely even turns to face her. More like flicks his eyes in her direction. "I do not play. I whittle, an' do other things that pass the time. Though I've great respect for a good musician. Music is one of the few things I find truly beautiful."
"Deep," Blake comments to Tyree as she passes him, headed toward Thad. "Real deep... mind if I?" she asks Thad, extending one hand down.
Tyree narrows his eyes curiously. "Words cannot be deep," he declares matter-of-factly. "That was just a well known aphorism."
"By all means," Thad responds to Blake, shifting where he sits. To Tyree, he just kind of shrugs again. "Thanks... I guess. Not for everybeast, music."
Blake grins over at Tyree in response, as she takes the lute and settles it in her arms. She strums lightly - accustomed to this kind of instrument, but by no means an expert. "Words can't be deep? You'ah definition of 'deep' 's a big limited, then."
"Well, it's a whittler versus a musician." Thad watches Blake play. He's almost on edge, like it took a lot for him to hand over his lute like that. :P "Not everybeast is a poet; not everybeast appreciates poetry. Doesn't make them any less deep, just... Different." While he says this, he flips over his diary and jots something down, hesitating, then jotting once more.
"What is all this about bein' deep?" Tyree says, rather confused as he comes down to sit next to the two of them. "A hare is a hare, with vices an' virtues, isn't he?"
Blake cracks a grin at Thad and seats herself, the lute on her thighs, leaning over it a little as she plucks out a little song.. or tries. She messes up a note, makes a face, and tries again. "I don't know what eithah of you'ah talkin' 'bout, now."
"I mean... Ah, I don't know. Just another poet's thing." Thad goes back to watching Blake jam out, as it were. "I think a hare's got more than vices and virtues, as he says. More like... Views. And perspectives." More psychobabble is always good to go along with shared lute playing.
"Yes, I'm fairly sure we're a tad lost in the midst of this meanderin' mumblin'," Tyree says, raising an eyebrow. He watches Blake /attempt/ to play the lute. "Got somethin' in mind ta' serenade us all?" he asks with a faint hint of a smirk.
Blake's head is ducked to the instrument, eyes on the strings, then she looks up with a short laugh. "I don't think so, mate. These're forge-workah hands, they don't do so well with playin' instruments. Or much of anythin' else, really."
"Heheh..." Thad reaches for his lute. Tiiiime to come back to papa. "Forge worker?" He looks surprised. "...You don't seem like the type."
"You never struck me as the lute playin' type," Tyree replies to Thad. "An' yet, here you are."
Blake passes the lute back over, and shrugs. "Call it a hobby."
"I didn't?" Thad seems a little amused. "I guess I don't strike anybeast as any type at all, usually." Shrug. He starts strumming the lute once again. "I guess I haven't thought about it much."
"O' course not. S'impossible ta' tell what a creature is like just meetin' 'em." Tyree leans back and looks up at the wide open sky. "If we could, it'd take all the fun out of makin' friends with 'em, I suppose." Because Tyree has /such/ a glut of friends right now.
"Well, 's not like you can really meet anyone without gettin' some kind of impression 'bout them," Blake points out.
Thad snorts out a laugh. Oh, Tyree. "You think you got it all figured out, don't you, Ty?"
"Yes, I do. Well, most of it," Tyree says, tilting his head thoughtfully. Yes, most of it he believes he does have figured out. There's no sign of him joking after all! "Overall I believe I have a fairly good grasp on things." Ah, to be young and think the world is your oyster.
Blake doesn't quite laugh, but she's giving Tyree a particular smile. ".. how old'ah you, then?"
"Sure seems like it," Thad faux-agrees, grinning and nodding down to his lute, fiddling with it again. "Tyree's got it alllllll figured ouuuut..." He croons, mostly to himself. It's kind of bluesy.
"Nine an' a half seasons," Tyree says to Blake with a straight face. "Give or take a few days." He twitches an ear towards Thad as he begins his little ditty. His somewhat satisfied face says he's rather flattered by it.
"So. You c'n still count it on youah hands... an' you think you got everythin' figured?" Blake asks with raised brows. She seems fairly amused by that, shaking her head.
"Heh," Thad lets Blake handle this one, rather smugly strumming and picking alternately at his lute as this all goes down. "Yeah, he thinks he's got it alllllll figured ouuuuut..."
"Why not?" Tyree questions, seeming genuinely curious. Though it's hard to tell; his expressions involve very slight movements. A tilt forward of the head or ear, a shifting of his weight, a slight squinting of the eyes. "Is there a particular age I must reach afore I can say such?"
"Theah's an unspecific older'n'-you-ah-now age you gotta reach 'fore you c'n say it.. an' be tellin' the /truth/," Blake specifies, and gives Thad a sideways glance and a little nudge. Like sharing a joke.
Thad chuckles. "I wouldn't agree with /that,/ but it's... Likely." Strum, pluck, strum, noodle.
Tyree can catch the humor these two seem to be getting out of the conversation. It befuddles and somewhat irks him, actually. He squints his eyes a bit. "Ah. So it's a matter of you not trustin' my judgment," he says. "Well, perhaps there's some validity ta' that... but I /do/ think I've acquired a fair amount of experience by this point."
"You'ah righ', Tyree," Blake says as she stands up, dusting herself off. "Age doesn't mattah. 'm bloody six seasons, an' you know what? I know everythin' already." Grinning, she gives them both a bit of a wave and heads back inside. "Seeya guys."
"See you later, Blake." Thad gives a little wave with his picking paw before turning back to Tyree. "Just playing, Ty. I never thought I'd say this to somebeast /else,/ but maybe you need to lighten up sometimes."
"Yes... don't let us stop ya from enlightening the bally mountain," Tyree says after Blake, before turning back to Thad. "I hear that very often," he replies, returning to a straight, formal posture. "Though I do not quite know what 'tis meant by it. I used ta' bally well never even /speak/ ta' anyone, you know," he says.
"Yeah?" Thad sways a little with his own playing. "Then you've already made strides. You can at least lighten up around your friends. Be the stoic work-minded hare around everybeast else, but Ty, let me tell you..." He strums a few more chords, then sings, "You're taking yourself too seriouslyyyyyy..." Grin.
Tyree turns fully to the other buck, staring levelly at him. "All right, now you're just bein' silly," he says, but there's no hint of scorn behind it, and there's a very slight upward turn of the corner of his lip. A smirk.
"Heheh..." Thad stands up, leaning forward just a little as he supports and strums at his lute. "Tyree, Tyree, takes himself too seriously," his strums pick up, building a very oom-pah rhythm with them as he continues in a rather sing-song voice, "Always with sorrow, never with glee, he's just what a patroller should be...!"
Tyree sighs and crosses his arms as he leans back, apparently doing his best to look perturbed. If he had not already known Thad, he might truly have been. "Aye, an' proud of it, too," he adds, in a very plain, not-sing-songy-at-all voice.
"His major is so very proud, and his Colonel too..." Thad starts bouncing along with his strums, practically grinning as he continues his improvised ditty. "You'll know right away he's judging you -- you can tell when he's looking at youuuuu, oh, Tyree, Tyree..." And he goes back into what is now the chorus.
Well, it seems like someone's doing a bit of serenading out here? Cole's head pops up above the edge of the crater as he ascends from inside the mountain, his ears perked as he looks around. He glances back over his shoulder, muttering to someone. "Someone's... singin'?" He continues up and out.
"I'm judgin' this song is all satire an' no substance," Tyree mutters, though even he sounds somewhat amused at this point. He still refuses to actually *look* like it, though.
Nimue follows a few steps behind Cole. She may not be easy to see right away, because of the large buck in front of her, but her voice is audible in response to his. "Thought you said no one really comes up here..?"
"He rarely ever smiles, except when he's being smug..." Thad dances from one foot back to the other... "And if you ask, well I just think he needs a great, big, huuuuuuuuuuuuug!" Thad takes a big breath to go into the chorus, then ends up cackling uncontrollably, doubling over in laughter.
"... Well. Mostly they don't," Cole shrugs as he glances towards the pair. Huuuuuuh. Cole's head tilts to the side at a severe angle. His ears flop over a bit. As always he resembles a bit of a very big puppy.
Nimue steps around Cole as he stops to come up at his side, her brows quirked as she regards the two older bucks. "Only the loonies, I guess," she comments to the other recruit with her lips twitching in the start of a smile. Great big hug. Heheh.
Tyree shakes his head and looks away. "A hug. Right. Ha, ha. Like ta' see you /try,/" He rolls his eyes, which then fall on Cole and Nimue. Said eyes widen a tad, and then he begins to stand up. Uh oh. Someone heard that? "Cole?" he questions aloud. "Ah... hello. What brings you up here? An' with company...?" he wonders, eyeing Nimue closely.
Spinning around on a heel to see just who Tyree's talking to, Thad's ears pin. "...Hello," he begins, letting the body of his lute pendulum-swing down as he holds it by the neck. "...Ahhhhehm, hm."
Cole glances to the side at Nimue and then to Tyree as he's greeted. "Hi, Tyree." He lifts a paw in greeting, and then gestures to Nimue with a smile. "This is Nimue. She's a new recruit."
Nimue's lips curve up further. The way she considers the other two bucks seems a bit squinty-eyed, doesn't it? That's likely because one of her eyes is rather.. swollen. Eye and cheekbone. Recent shiner, which would be more obvious if her fur wasn't dark. One hand lifts and she moves her fingers in a little wave at Thad and Tyree. "'lo there."
Thad hehs. "Well, I was just going... Good seeing you," he says, generally, to all three of the other hares. Heh. He kneels down and picks up his diary and charcoal, standing up and carrying those, along with his lute, back inside. "See you all around..."
"Hello," Tyree says with a simple nod, staring at the bruise over Nimue's eye. "New recruit, eh? Welcome ta' the mountain. Just... come from a boxin' match?" he hazards. He nods to Thad. "Thanks for the, ah... musical tribute," he says with a tilt of his head.
Thad waves with his diary-carrying paw over his shoulder, and heads down.
Cole watches Thad go with a curious look. Hum. Singing buck! Intriguing. He glances back 'round at Tyree, then, and flushes a little at the question. "... I hit 'er." Pause. "/In/ a boxin' match," he elaborates.
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