We called upon ourselves the Everlasting Dark if we kept not our oath [ audio / video / action]

[so_dark_a_road]

[ On the seventeenth of March, Curufin collects his harp and flute and picks a nicely reverberating corner of Sorrow's temple. He sets up his phone and then begins to play. If there are other members of Team Sorrow who can make music, they are welcome to join him, and in that case, there will be multiple instruments playing. Imagine any or all of the following: Peter Kater's My Beloved, Georg Deuter's Dämmerschein, or Deuter's Moon-silvered Clouds, except played with harp instead of piano.

What this music means to Curufin is the hour of his life when that life was coming to an end. He got himself and two of his brothers killed while attempting to destroy the Kingdom of Doriath, in order that he might keep a disastrous pledge that should never have been sworn in the first place. And, of course, he slew a lot of innocent people before he and his brothers died. He dimly remembers, as though it were a painful dream, the departure of his spirit on the winter wind, on a day in which there was a blue sky and vast white gray-edged clouds drifting above the forest, first under the sun and then by moonlight. He remembers his sorrow and that of the four brothers he left behind to weep and to bury their family. And he remembers his grief because now there could never be a reconciliation with his estranged son.

Elves have a certain magic -- they describe it as putting their thought into all that they make. This goes for music as well as for material artifacts. Curufin, as well, has a gift for casting a dark spell on others, transmitting a dark dream to them. But the dream he transmits here is dark but not evil, only profoundly sorrowful. It is not a sorrow without hope, however, because he himself is no longer hopeless. His post-death experiences have given him back his heart, and so his vision has a thin gleam of something positive in it.

Any listeners who are susceptible to this kind of performance will feel their own emotions, of course, emerging from their own experiences. It could be memories of loved ones cherished and lost, or other experiences of being grief-stricken. How they react is up to the individuals who hear. They should feel free, if they wish, to let him know how the music affects them. ]

[ OOC: Whoever wants their characters to be directly affected by this magic is free to do so, but of course it is not obligatory. Curufin's not a bad musician even without the magic. Also, OOCly, if your character tags in and allows himself or herself to become sorrowful, I will send Curufin to your post to experience the emotions of your character's team, or it can happen in this log. Fair trade! Everybody benefits. XD ]

Comments

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin nods. "I can imagine why people would be scared! Poor little robot. . . "

"Old man?" He only knows a few old men here at Hadriel. "Who was that? And you say he wasn't mad?"

[deceiving_is_believing]

"Uhh... Regis? I think he said his name was?" He's pretty sure. But then his expression glimmers to something borderlining the uncomfortable, before going back to his original smile, as he tries to answer the next part of the question.

"Yea, I mean he scolded me a little. But even that was only a little bit." He actually wishes Regis would have, at the very least, yelled a little more if he had no intention of hitting him. The whole people not hitting and screaming at him thing? It's uncomfortable to him. Uncomfortable and awkward. Which was intensified by that look of horror the King gave when he realised Shuuya expected to be hit. It was the painful desire torn between wanting to tell Regis to hit him and knowing it would only make it worse if he did.

He still isn't sure he made the right choice.

[so_dark_a_road]

"I know Regis. Yes, he'd be thinking not only of himself but of you. He's that kind of person. He'd worry that he'd hurt you unnecessarily."

[deceiving_is_believing]

"Small world, huh? How did you and him meet?"

Y'know, to change the subject off of him for a little while.

[so_dark_a_road]

"In the Colosseum, back in January, when the Door opened to acquire more newcomers and they were greeted with some very peculiar and hostile vegetable-like creatures! Regis was injured and I helped him get to the clinic. We had quiet a nice conversation on the way. He told me about his son and I told him about mine."

He's perfectly willing to let Shuuya change the subject. He'll talk about anything and everything with him.

[deceiving_is_believing]

At the mention of the Colosseum, Shuuya seems to almost perk his ears.

"Yea, he told me a little about his kid, too. Pretty nice guy from what I understand. You... don't look old enough to have children, though?"

Definitely nowhere near as old as Regis.

"So, what do you know about the Colosseum? Anything interesting about it?"

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin bursts into a laugh. "Does a person have to have gray hair and wrinkles to be a convincing parent?"

"Most of what I know about the Colosseum comes from when I tried to blow it up. Other than that, I don't know much. Just that new people appear there, so I suppose the fabled Door that lets us in must be located in it. Or under it."

[deceiving_is_believing]

Shuuya just gives a shrug and a grin. "Probably a little bit. With a baby face like yours, though, no one might ever believe you."

"Whoa, you tried to blow it up?! That's so awesome!" Shuuya laughs. "You're an interesting guy. What'd the Colosseum do to you in order to get blown up?"

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin can't help laughing, a laugh of pure enjoyment. "Nobody's ever told me before that I have a baby face!"

"Yes, I tried to blow it up. There was a strange event about three months ago. Everybody got angry, and a lot of us began to behave rather like mad dogs. And for the strangest reasons! I began to HATE buildings with multiple windows. Windows and window-apertures looked to me like the very essence of EVIL. And I was walking past the Colosseum when that first window-hating thought came into my mind. You've seen it. It is basically a triple circle of fifteen-foot-high windows. No glass, but windows all the same. And so I rushed back to my workshop, where I had already gathered the materials with which to manufacture explosives. And I made some dynamite. And then I rigged some sections of the Colosseum walls with the stuff. I found detonator cord -- mysteriously! -- in the ruins of some of those unused alien shops. And I wrecked a fair part of that damnable building. I have to say, it was fun. But then my son found me and dragged me off to the orchard to cool down."

"So, no, the Colosseum didn't do anything to deserve it, unless you count being the location of the Door that brought us all here. And truthfully, I'm not all that sorry about being here. So I guess you could say the building was innocent." Smile.

"So what's your interest in the Colosseum, Shuuya?"

[deceiving_is_believing]

"First time for everything." Shuuya chuckles.

Shuuya can't help but laughing at the story.

"Hot damn, remind me to stay on your good side! A bunch of explosives just for windows." He continues to snicker as he tries to picture a Curufin flailing against his son's grasp to pull him away from the destruction of a place that fueled his hatred.

"Y'don't miss home, huh? You don't think it's rough here?" Shuuya inquires rather neutrally with a casual grin.

Shuuya shrugs at the question.

"Nothing spectacular. I arrived here in it and found scary things and other people. I guess maybe I'm just trying to understand it. It's a weird thing to have been pulled to another dimension without having to face death first."

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin laughs, too. He did flail a bit, but he was no longer heartless enough to refuse his son anything he asked for.

"I do miss home, but I know I can't go back. And yes, it's rough here, but not more so than home was."

"The quest for understanding. . . of anything. . . is a worthy quest. I respect that. Ah, so you came here without dying in your own world? -- that makes it harder, I guess? Unfinished business in your life?"

[deceiving_is_believing]

"Yea? How come you can't go back? Is it just because you're stuck here, or?"

That last set of questions causes Shuuya to grimace slightly. But as quickly as he grimaces, he tucks it back away. He'll give the very bare minimum of information here.

"Yea, I came here without dying." I really should be, though. He doesn't really answer the last part of that question - Unfinished business in your life? Between not being sure what to call it, and the fear of being questioned further for it, he just... would seriously rather not.

[so_dark_a_road]

[ OOC: Moved left. ]