She takes a deep breath, and still maintaining the smile on her face, she replies with a confident, "Yes!"
The song passes through my guitar so smoothly, I probably wouldn't have noticed I was playing anything if there weren't any lyrics.
Regarding the lyrics, I feel as if my voice sounds a lot nicer than it used to. As if I could always sing perfectly.
Once I finish playing, I quietly breathe out and look over toward Sora.
She's lightly crying with a large smile on her face.
"Of course you're still so good." She wipes away her tears, "But that just means I have to be better, no?"
I place down my guitar, "Well show me how much you've improved before we begin talks on who's better."
"Alright!" She replies, "I will play the first song I ever played you, and you will love it!"
I smile and scoot over.
I lean onto Sora's shoulder and light a cigarette, "Go right ahead."
She freezes, much to my confusion.
I'm pretty sure I've done that before when we were playing together... Maybe shes surprised as-
"S-Sorry for pausing." She spits out suddenly, "You j-just look really cool doing that."
...
"Do I?" I mumble, "Well that shouldn't matter, you get on with your performance, It's been a year since we last did this, so let's see if your improving talk was all for nothing." I say.
"It isn't!" she replies, "And besides, I would never give you a bad performance... But! Let's get on with it."
I close my eyes and puff my cigarette as she begins playing light chords.
"Once upon a time" comes lightly from her mouth, "In a city during its prime..."
"And no matter the crime" she breaths in, "The city will stand for the rest of time"
...A brief pause as she slowly turns to me.
"Was it good?" She asks with a concerned smile.
"Of course it was" I reply with my own light smile, "I forgot how sweet of a song that was."
"Well it's a song that my parents had played for me, so I always recite it through rosy glasses." She breathes in, "But! I need to know, have I improved?"
I move off of Sora's shoulder and tap my cigarette on the table's ashtray, "You have, firstly-"
"YES!" she interrupts me, "O-Oh! Sorry, I just was working so hard to hear those words, i-it just feels surreal to finally hear them."
"No, no, don't feel bad about it." I assure her, "You're allowed to celebrate you know? In fact, I would encourage it."
"So should I celebrate even more?" She asks.
"If you want to..."
"Alrighty then!" She gets up and starts prancing around the room, humming a celebratory melody through a large smile.
I just smile to myself. I can't tell if she's purposely overblowing it, or just that happy to be validated after all this time.
Either way, it makes for a fun sight.
...
After a short time, she falls back down onto the couch, tilting over slowly before ending up on my shoulder.
"So... Do I need to improve more?" She asks after a small pause.
"Sora, you were already perfect when I left." I answer her, "You've just become even better now, so I think you can calm down on the front."
"Well, I'm still not as good as you..."
"So? Even if that was true, it doesn't take away from your accomplishments." I breathe in, "You've worked hard to get to your current skill level, so throwing all of that away just because you aren't as good as one person just invalidates all the work you've put in."
"Yeah... I guess so." She somberly replies.
I yawn and look out the studio window, "Sora, you've become a fully-fledged star in Terra, and you've earned it. You have no business putting yourself down just because you "aren't as good as me", you are amazing Sora, always know that."
...
"Thanks," She says.
I reply with a smile.
"So, the plan's simple." Emperor says from the head chair at the table, "We have three groups that we spread across Lungmen. We spot the bastards and pop em' full of lead."
Currently, every Penguin Logistics member aside from Mostima has been called to discuss how to deal with the mafiosos. Emperor seems to have already laid out a plan though.
"Who's in what group?" Sora asks.
"Uh... Croissant and Bison, Texas and Sora, Exusiai and Az. Yeah, That'll work." The penguin spouts from his high chair, "That fine with everyone?"
"No." Sora says without hesitation, "I'm going with Az."
"Uh, You guys had a full night to catch up! You're trying to monopolize him Sora!" Exusiai says from across the table.
"So! I haven't finished catching up with him yet!" Sora argues, "Az never moved onto another task before finishing his current one! He should stay with me until we've fully caught up and then you can have him!"
"That makes no sense! Relationships aren't a task! You got your time to catch up, you got a lot of it! We also nee-"
I fade them out and glance over at Texas.
We stare at each other silently, both annoyed by the unnecessary argument.
She points at herself and then me, I nod knowing what she's proposing.
...
"I'll be with Az." Texas says shutting up both Sora and Exusiai.
"But-"
"Alright then." The penguin says before anyone gets to protest, "Az will be with Texas, Exusiai and Sora will be together, and Croissant will be with the newbie."
"Please don't call me that" Bison butts in.
"We'll go out in a couple days, during the Sawing festival or whatever it's called." Emperor says ignoring Bison completely.
"The Sauin Festival." Texas corrects him.
"Yeah, that. We go out then and we pop those bastards, and no more complaining bout' groups, alright."
"Sure..." Sora and Exusiai both say, me and Texas nod as Bison seems to yet again forget how to process reality. Croissant simply shows an eager thumbs-up.
"Well... you're free to do whatever. Enjoy your time and don't get hurt before the festival." Emperor says getting up off his high chair, "Now leave me alone, I'm going to go mourn over my broken records."
...
"He's the same as ever." I mutter towards Texas.
"Yup," She replies looking over towards Sora and Exusiai.
...I should probably head back to my apartment, I mean, I slept on the couch in the studio yesterday... Maybe I could find a bookstore or something on the way bac-
"AZ!" is shouted from both the mouths of Sora and Exusiai.
They seem to have started their argument back up again while I wasn't paying attention, how nice.
"Yes?" I reply.
"Who would you rather spend time with?" Sora lightly screams at me, "The person who you've been playing one-on-one with for years! Or Exusiai."
"I've been with him way longer than you have Sora! Us two and Texas pretty much started the company itself!"
"Texas" I say across the room.
They just look at me.
"I would much rather be with Texas. You two are friends who are fighting on who gets to team up with who for a day." I elaborate, "I know this is the first time you guys have seen me in a while, but I'm going to be staying here with you all for a long time after this. You will all get your chances to tell me about life, just please don't argue over it."
...
I sigh at their silence, gaining nods from both of them only then.
I start to head out towards the door. Mapping out the streets to my apartment in my head.
Texas just nods at me as I leave while Croissant seems to slowly take steps after me.
...
"Wanna go shoppin'?" She asks running in front of me. Taking advantage of the arguing duo being frozen.
"No Croissant, you cant buy that."
"But it's a limited edition, this thing ill' be huge in the aftermarket!"
"No means no, you've already bought 4 "limited editions" in this complex alone. You arent going to have any budget left by the time the Sausin festival rolls around."
"You have to spend money to earn money!" She protests, "C'mon, just float me somethn' here! Trust in ya shoppin' expert!"
I just sigh and put whatever she grabbed back onto the shelf. I begin walking out, forcing Croissant to follow me.
"Croissant," I ask her, "What's your current balance?"
"Uhh... Round' 400 LMD I think." She replies
...
"You're going broke." I flatly tell her scoping out the stores ahead.
"I'm investin'!" She pleads, "C'mon, I just told ya this, you gotta spend money to earn money."
"But you've spent all your money and gotten nothing back." I tell her, "In the midst of a gunfight you were more focused on keeping the wine intact, but while spending money you act the exact opposite. You have no limit do you?"
"Well... I... uhhh..." She gives up, "So what. I'm going broke. You always moderated my purchases before, and then you dipped, so I was able to let loose."
"And ruin your budget?" I add, "I'm pretty sure I told you to not shop while I was gone or else this would happen."
"Well ya left for a year, so I kinda caved in after the 6th or 7th month."
I raise an eyebrow.
"... Alwright! Alwright! I immediately went shoppin after ya left." She admits, "I couldn't help maself y'know."
"When we first met you were brought on as a finical manager, and you were about to be fired if I didn't help you keep you afloat... If you didn't have a big shield and the ability to use it, you probably would have been fired by now."
Croissant just stares at me, not sure how to respond to my bluntness.
"Owch..." She eventually gets out, "And I was doing a pretty good job of our budget for the past year thank ya!"
"But what about your own?"
...
"Whatddya care!" She says, "If I'm going broke, let me go broke in peace."
I sigh, "Croissant, as your friend, going broke is a bad way to live life. So at least try to put a hold on your spending, I don't particularly want to put restrictions on our financial manager's card."
"...You can do that?" She asks.
"I can definitely find a way." I reply.
...
"Well I'll try ma best. Just for ya, Az." She says.
"Thank you Croissant." I say back.
We walk in silence until I reach a store I spotted earlier.
...
"Croissant I'm going to head into here. I'm looking for something to read." I say turning into a bookstore.
"Ok." She says, "You'll be back tomorrow right?"
"I have nothing else to do." I reply.
"Awrighty then! I'll see you tomorrow at the bar then."
"...The destroyed one? The Ends of the Earth?"
"Yup!"
...
"Ok then, I'll see you there sometime tomorrow." I say, "And again, please watch your card."
"Yeah, yeah. I know, I know." She says, "Imma head back to the safehouse, and I promise to not spend anything else for the wrest' of today."
I give her a smile as a response, she smiles back before walking away.
I head into the store and turn up the volume on my headphones.
I begin checking through the shelves, seeing if there's anything interesting.
I've learned that there isn't any internet here, or at least nothing that could keep me entertained for hours on top of hours while I wait around for something to happen.
So what would be the next best option to state boredom? Well... reading.
Another good option would be playing music, but Sora and I can't play anything other than a guitar... so I can't really do that for more than one or two hours.
Maybe I should learn drums or something... Or if I ever join Rhodes Island I can get Blaze to play sets with me and Sora, I'm pretty sure she can play drums...
Well, I'll figure that out later.
Right now, I just want to get a good read and get back to the apartment. No need getting hung up on these things.
Using the trashcan as an ashtray again, I head into the elevator and ride up to my floor.
Coming back here again feels like a sort of checkpoint. I've made it through my first couple of days in Terra, and for the most part, it's been great.
It's just surprising looking at how much has changed in only 2 days.
And changed for the better.
...
The door opens, I take out my keys and head into my room.
Placing my book bag on the table, I take off my shoes and get into more comfortable clothes. I unpack the 4 books I bought at the store and place 3 of them on my bookshelf, taking up a small amount of space.
I take the last book and plop down onto my bed, taking a long glance at the Lungmen skyline before closing the blinds.
I allow only the lampshade to be lit as I open up to page 1 of the book. I'm just going to read until I get tired enough to sleep.
...
As the pages flip through my fingers, I try to plan out tomorrow.
I have about 3 days until the Sausin festival, which in turn gives me 3 days until the ending of Code of Brawl.
I don't think I have to plan anything for the Code of Brawl arc, given that no one was hurt in the original story, and that the climactic ending was a candy bomb going off, raining sweets across the streets.
...I don't think I have to be worried about that.
The thing that I should be focusing on is what happens next. Will it be another side event starring Penguin Logistics? Will it be the start of regular canon with a reunion attack? Will it be something completely new?
I'm going to have to plan something out for these scenarios, even if it's just something small, it'll help.
My guess would be the start of canon. While fear of reunion hasn't been all that present in Lungmen from what I've seen walking the streets, people still mention them.
Maybe I can look at the newspaper tomorrow morning and get an idea of where reunion stands right now, I can see if they have attacked Chernobog yet.
...
I yawn and slip the bookmark into the last page I read.
I drop the book down on my nightstand and get up towards the bathroom.
I brush my teeth and take a quick shower.
Walking out the bathroom, I take off my shirt, turn off the lamp, and fall into bed.
With small glances of neon lights peering through the gaps in the blinds, I fall asleep to the sound of light strumming through my headphones.
(Originally) Uploaded on May 1st, 2022.
