[IC] Play a duet with the character above you 🎵

Maybe George should have been more concerned about the fact he was stuck in a room with a demon, but hopefully, fucking hopefully he would be able to appease her... And, with what?

The polished brass nestled in his hands gleamed in the sunlight through the window. Obviously, it wasn't the greatest offering he could give to the hissing, shrieking beast, but the man wasn't known for his foresight all throughout his years. Even now, he was enthralled by the animal, eyeing her patiently and curiously before bringing the trumpet up, resting the mouthpiece just on the bottom of his lip. He was pretty sure he liked this thing. Even if she wanted to beat the shit out of him. He can tolerate misandry.

So, he played the first few notes -- loud, brash, and high-pitched, but still in the oddest sense silvery as he tried to match the bird's tone, which worked... for the most part. He wasn't willing enough to dive into a cacophony, to disgrace himself, but Gods, did he play. For two seconds, and at which point he pulled the trumpet away to coo at the bird.

"And, stars above, do we pray for the--"

He went back to playing. Honest to God, singing and playing the trumpet? Hellish. He had lungs, but not enough of them, so he let the bird take over right then, cawing out what vaguely sounded like lyrics... Or, syllables to song lyrics.

"For the bold and the beauty, little stars go--" he broke in again, before closing the lyrics with another boom of his trumpet, as he tried his damnedest to keep up with sweet, sweet Minou. "-- And the little women go--"

More. More trumpet noises. At least he wasn't a bad trumpeter?

..Though, this was way below his skill level, and he was going to lose his mind trying to match the bird's hardcore metal screeches.

At least! At least he was having fun. Who fucking knows about Minou.

maybe i will write a follow-up post also sorry i'm using an iconless character i just need to trumpet somewhere.

It was cold. Snowflakes as big as Salvador’s thumbnail whirled down on the wooden porch. The snow colored the slate made houses in white. Salvador released his breath, creating clouds as his gaze dropped to the banjo he held.
He played some banjo in his time. Especially back home. His cousin’s friend happened to have one and it was a costume to drink and play music after their mine shift ended. It was his dad who had introduced him to the banjo. After his death, Salvador never had the urge to play again. Until now.
Insecure Salvador thumbed the string.
“I’m a bit rusty,” he admitted to Beatrice as his now gloved fingers toggled the strings. His finger cramped around the banjo’s neck.
“You should have seen my pah. My real pah. He was a talent,” Salvador said. Salvador breathed out. “His fingers acted as fluent as water.”
His gaze shifted away from Beatrice, back at their front yard. He watched how the robins hopped through the snow. Spitting around and looking for food. It was a peaceful scene and still, Salvador felt horrible. The banjo just felt heavy in his hands.

“Maybe you can hum?” he asked Beatrice. Slightly insecure. “To help me keep the rhythm,” Salvador suggested. He toggled a string. But the cramped grasp around the neck made the tone sound strained.
“You don’t have to, of course. I,” he ran his hair through his hair. “I don’t even know why I asked you for a banjo in the first place. As if writing wasn’t enough to keep me busy.”
He chuckled. But it had lost all its enthusiastic spark.
“Maybe I hoped the fresh town-air would magically give me the ability to play the banjo. Or maybe... It all reminded me of home,” Salvador admitted. He eased the grasp on the neck.
“But we can try... Right?” Salvador asked. He eyed her before letting his fingers again toggle the strings. Now that his fingers around the neck had eased a bit, the produced tones sounded clearer.
“Alright,” Salvador said. He took a deep breath. “Here we go.”

Salvador let his fingers toggle the different strings as he kept his ears pricked for Beatrice’s guidance. Occasionally the Half messed up. Or his thickened with leather fingers slipped. But it sounded like music. Like home, even with his imperfections. Scrap that, especially with those imperfections.
A smile replaced the normal scoff Salvador had. For the first time in a long time, the Half genuinely smiled.

--

I cant believe Sal has 3 mums

"Ah, you play the bassoon? That's lovely," Kiko commented to Monroe. While the elder party glanced at her watch, she tussled with her wavy bangs and heaved out an exhale.

"You know, I used to play piano. I started when I was, ahm, eight or nine, maybe ten years old. I stopped when I got pregnant with my son. He's a little... introverted, I think you two would get along...heh. Well, you look like you're a pretty young lady—excuse me, young man," Kiko continued, pausing to nervously tug on the collar of her shirt.

"Ooh, I'm so sorry for that huge tangent...and for, uhm, misgendering you. I don't know much about this, uhm, transitioning gender stuff. Erm, can you show me some of your music? I can be your audience." As soon as Kiko finished speaking, she craned her head closer to the younger party, beaming as she watched him lift up his bassoon. She listened to the notes he played, and found herself humming along as well. Sure, it was off-key and delayed, but she had the spirit. She continued to do so until the younger party stopped, prompting her to applaud to him and brandish a grin.

"Ooh, that was lovely! Ahm, look, I need to go, sorry for that...but hopefully I'll see you again!"

"Heeeeey, lady! Come here and help me with somethin' real fast!" Count your days, Kiko.

".. Don't worry, I'm not gonna do nothin' stupid. You're too old for my taste anyway," Jerry held a bass in his hands, his fingers resting on the frets of the guitar and the opposing hand gently laying atop the strings; ".. Do you do any singing? I know Chinese people are like.. SUUUPER cool at singing, and you fuckin' look Chinese -- I just need you to like.. sing a few chords for me. No songs or nothin', just go 'AAAAAA' in different pitches. Easy?" His dumbass mouth stayed hung open as he slowly moved a hand up to the tuning keys.

"Uh, yeah, this might be a bit loud. I'd put that," Jerry paused and gestured towards baby Aiden and looked back up at the woman, ".. I'd put the baby away. Or like, give it a burrito or somethin'. That way it'll get distracted and suck on the burrito like a pacifier." Jerry knows his infant logic, that's for sure!

Once some sort of chords started playing, Jerry nonchalantly began to tune his bass. This is shockingly enough the only time he's ever calm, though, admittedly he'll always be stupid; abruptly stopping and shooting a look up at Kiko, .. What the hell was that note she just sang?

Forget what I said. As if all of the energy in his body was suddenly fucking supercharged, Jerry sprung up and put his fingers back on the frets; smiling like an absolute lunatic.
"Hey! .. Do you know what you just did? Sing that again! And keep singing!" Suddenly, Jeremey moved his fingers in position and began playing some sort of funky tune along with the chord -- bopping his head up and down as he did so.

"Check thiiiiiis! This song is fucking awesome, I'm gonna make you famous off of it! Just watch!" Sure.

LIMITED EDITION FOLLOW UP cause my fingers wanted to type and this was a good opportunity!! heya!! papa bless rust twin

En had never done karaoke before, he didn't even know what it was. When he heard, however, about how many people would go there to have fun, he was intrigued.
The minute he stepped in and learned what it really was, he wanted to turn around and immediately leave.
Maybe it was because of that, or because of how nervous he looked, that he got dragged on stage to sing a duet with someone else who got dragged up. En nervously fumbled with the mic in his hands, desperately trying to explain that he couldn't do this, only to be met with drunk and excited laughter. He looked over at Moss, who seemed far more confident. "L-Listen," the prince stammered. "I'm not a singer. I'm-I'm really bad at this! I don't--" The music started, and the crowd cheered. En gulped and looked at the screen that showed the lyrics. No getting out of here, huh...
Taking a deep breath, En attempted to sing, but the minute he opened his mouth, his voice cracked on almost every word. Some people enjoyed it, but for the most part others grew quiet in awe of how someone could sing this bad. His face burning with embarrassment, En lowered his tone until he was barely speaking. Fortunately, Moss was a great singer, and had a great voice to match. He seemed to be winning everyone over, at least, so for now En would... lip sync until this was over.

Edit /ooc: fkhfhfkh En I'm cryin 😭 

--

The prince's musical reputation proceeds him. Being tasked to jam with him was truly steep a sacrifice in the name of civic duty, and apparently the task had fallen to Heron. He's not going to listen to that tone-deaf yowling. Not while there's a time-honoured alternative.

"Here," he thrusts an instrument into En's hands, and it's not open for negotiation, "Try it." Bass guitar was definitely more this guys speed. Thank him later.

"Play the thickest string with your finger, like this," Heron palms his pick, and briefly demonstrates on his guitar. "You know how a 12-bar goes?" Heron shows him how to play it just on open strings. Slow twelve-bar. Even a monkey could play this.

Or, so Heron had thought.

En's playing is truly outstanding, even for someone who's never played before—nigh arhythmic, with strings ringing out horribly the whole while. Heron has heard drunk, non-musical chicks play better than this. Nevertheless, it does give him something to noodle over... kind of. He has to keep time with some palm mutes at the same time as he tries to solo in between, and apparently En doesn't know how to count to four, let alone twelve. Heron gives up quickly and demotes himself to rhythm guitar—the bumbling royal can just try to play along. A few excruciating rounds are probably enough. Heron brings it all to an ultimate stop by simply reaching over to turn En's volume down all the way.

"...We're done."

Heron retrieves the bass before En can cause any more damage, and looks him in the eyes bluntly.

"You're a natural." Absolutely. All the makings of a working bass player, for sure.

/ooc: wow I'm basszoning other people's oc's now :'V En's asking for it 😔

--

Machete's eyes skipped over towards Heron's guitar; holy shit he was good, and who was he to even dare hold an instrument mere feet away from him? A fucking loser? Basically.
He gently held his fingers against the frets of his bass, nonchalantly trying to mimic whatever the hell the opposite party was doing. Rather subpar-ly, too. 

Machete hesitated on saying anything at first, essentially for many reasons, but two main ones struck him in particular. First and foremost, both of them were just relaxing on their own, and second of all, this dude is terrifying. One wrong move and Heron could snap him like a pretzel stick, naturally of course. But alas, he continued to part his lips and exhale heavily,
".. Do you know any songs on that?" What a stupid question, of course he does! Machete pinched in between his eyebrows and rephrased, "I mean, lets do something with .. this."

Machete's bass wasn't exactly in tune for 'regular rock' per say; the sound it usually protruded probably had the ability to kill a baby bird. It was thick, and heavy. There's just something about black metal songs with those low, ear bleeding bass tones that could make anybody cry -- and of course, that wasn't going to stop this man.
"Mind you, it's suppose to be out of tune. We could make some," he paused for a bit and snapped this fingers, ".. interesting sound."

Sure..

Very slowly, the bassist began to pluck at his instrument to whatever rhythm Heron was making with his. It didn't sound .. bad at all? More or less, Machete was still fucking scared of this man as he played his guitar -- barely seven feet tall, and this dude was an absolute monster.

"That was fine, I guess." He sighed and set down the guitar,
"Honestly, my band can still kick your band's asses, though." Oh, talking like a middle schooler now, are we?

np, machete plays bass! go cray cray with that

Mod post ignore me: dragoninawagon don't forget your claim! (Dw it happens) I'll give you another 12 hours otherwise I'll be claiming @//kafkaesque Np!! ❤️

"Oh hey, what's that?" Marco was helping the elderly clean out and came across a particular instrument. A tamboruine with skin rattled as he was pulling it out of a box. "Ooo I've seen these!... Those are... uuh..." He rubbed his chin, as he took good a few seconds to think, and then said with full confidence, "Tamblereems..." Almost, Marco. After being corrected by Dolores, he gently stroked across the rubber skin, before slapping it one time. He was absolutely delighted by the jangle and smiled cheerfully. "Is that how you play them?" There was a childish joy in his voice, which rarely comes out. He began hitting the tamblereem rhythmically. Having so much fun, he really got into it and even starting dancing to the beat he created. The wolf-man was straight up vibing. With the power of badly improvised percussion, the cruel world he feared was jangled away for a moment. "Tada~", he shouted while striking an extravagant pose.
After letting all that out of his system, Marco cleared his throat and put on a serious face again. "So where does this go?..." The cruel world was back.

(Late follow-up incoming)

Caelestis arranged a date in a karaoke bar. Joy! He couldn't wait to hear him sing! Considering he himself had a rather... interesting technique, he wouldn't mind if it was good or bad anyways. And oh, how he loved listening to his smooth voice. So much so that he almost missed his verse, but just in time he took a deep breath and
Screamed his fucking lungs out. Yes, he went all out. Marco can't sing and he knows it, so he uses it purely as vent, considering he's usually very quiet. His expression was fierce, almost angry, but he was clearly having fun with it. Maybe a metal song would've been more fitting.
When the song was over, the man had a content smile on his face and that smile grew even bigger when Caelestis planted a kiss on his cheek. His cheeks flushed and he bashfully looked to the side. "Ah thanks!... I just hope you're having fun..." He turned his gaze back to his date. "I sure do."