closed | jam session.

[cozen]

WHO: Ellie, Tony, Byerly, Bastien
WHAT: A recording session
WHEN: Vaguely now
WHERE: Kirkwall
NOTES: As planned and promised.

Comments

lute adequacy.

[propulsion]

"Look, it's not gonna—we're not going for fidelity, here."

Just so everyone is clear, even the guys who have never heard this song before. Tony is currently tuning the lute in a way that would likely sound off to their ears and would involve too much research for me to explain any further, but it is what's happening, as he talks. "We're going for adaptation."

He strums out a chord, sounds fine, settles his fingers, seems about to play—then puts out a hand. "I just want to manage expectations," is maybe more playing at nervous energy than true nervousness. Anyway, like he said, his girlfriend likes it.

"If we ever play together," he adds, hand again resettling, "we're all gonna have to learn 'Free Bird' so it's not just me on my own. This is not 'Free Bird'. I'll explain later."

Okay, okay, he's playing.

There's been a little bit of crashing and thrashing on these poor instruments, god knows, but the gently melodic tune he begins to play is only romantic, and to the benefit of the sort of sound a lute can produce. It is a song designed to be swayed to, slow danced to, has been countless times, in countless worlds, probably.

Tony's vocal rendition of "Can't Help Falling In Love" is not, either, an Elvis impression, save for the occasional inflection for those who know better. He is mostly watching his hands.

[cozen]

The nervous prelude only piques more curiosity from Bastien, to the point that he stops fiddling with this and sorting through that to come closer and sit a few yards away to watch with expectant attention.

Tony only narrowly avoids being told to stop stalling.

And the song, when it begins, is not what Bastien expected. Tony's earlier unspoken epiphany was largely correct: Thedas' popular songs are most frequently narratives. Their love songs are most often from first to third person or about two third-person characters entirely, with the romance wrapped safely in a story. The emotion is held at a polite distance.

Here, it isn't. Simple feelings, promises made by the singer directly to someone who it feels ought to be sitting right in front of him, looking him in the eye.

Bastien might squirm, if it weren't so damn compelling.

[notathreat]

This is one that Ellie knows. It's been picked out on a six-string so many times on the back porch next to her garage that it stings, aches through her. Cool autumn nights, swallowing the quiet rumbles of a familiar voice, while the chords came through clear and sweet.

It's soft, loving, and maybe Ellie imagines the heartbreak wrapped up in the words along with the promise.

Darling, so it goes.

Discreetly, she reaches up, wipes her nose with her sleeve.

[bouchonne]

Byerly, meanwhile, is sprawled back in his seat - and as he listens, he grins at the sheer audacity of the song. The intimacy of it is absurd. Because, indeed, when there are those love songs, they're all about my mistress' eyes and all that; none of this awkward rawness.

"This," Byerly murmurs to Bastien, "is the horniest thing I've ever heard in my life."

(By is, it must be noted, frequently quite a bit less sentimental than his beloved is.)

[propulsion]

It's a good thing Tony doesn't catch that. He'd probably giggle and ruin the vibe too much to even want to redo.

There are, of course, hornier songs provided by earth than a croony beachy love song from sixty years ago, but the stripped back sentimentality of it is not shied away from save that Tony checking his audience only affords fleeting eye contact. Byerly provides a reprieve with shit-eating grin, honestly.

It's a short song. Take my hand, take my whole life too, and the last chorus. Odder arrangement of chords aside, Tony lets the lute do its pretty lute thing right up to the last frilly flourish. And, because he can't help himself,

"Thank you very much," spoken quickly, where the crystal will most certainly pick it up too.