Sidequest:Thournmount: Park!

[Sierra]

Sierra Luke::Thornmount Park::


Sighing, Sierra hopped onto her rock and pulled out her notebook. She was working on her latest book, called Belle. It was about an elf, named Belle, who was called by a great spirit to go out and purge the world of evil.

Sure it cliche', but she loved that kind of book.

Shifting her weight about, her thoughts drifted to her job. Ugh. Sierra wished she could quit, but she had to support herself.

Closing her eyes she began sining a verse from a song she loved.

Heal me from the death blow,
Lead and I will follow,
Now you see my heart glow,
Mending at the seams...

Before she knew it, she was laying on the ground, giggling, still singing the song.

[Corruzione]

::Alex::Thornmount.Park::

His guitar sat across one knee, a notepad resting on the other. Currently he busied himself scrawling lyrics across the lined paper - black ink looking like simple lines rather than actual handwriting (such was the verticality of the letters) but it was decipherable to him. His left hand was clutched around the guitar's neck, forming chords as he wrote, the occasional glance thrown to his fingers but never anything more than a fleeting look.

Clutching the pen between his straight teeth, he removed the plectrum from its resting place trapped between the strings in the headstock and ran through his writing - chords played accommpanied by subtle breathed words pushed past the pen. He closed dark eyes after the first verse and chorus, chord names and lyrics imprinted on the inside of his eyelids.

He shifted position after the song, pick now held by his teeth with the notepad and pen safely deposited on the bench beside him, he placed both feet squarely on the floor, stamping out the pins and needles - that long he had been sitting on that park bench. He rested the guitar against the bench, to his right, and looked around; taking in the sights of the park, he looked across the small pond and spotted the girl laughhing to herself, it was infectious - a grin fighting its way onto his usually stern features.

Okay, so he forced himself to be stern in the presence of company - since his father and mother had been killed he found himself much more stoic than he had been... perhaps it was sadness at their deaths that caused this, or perhaps he felt that he had to make up for the void left by his father (the most serious man that Alex had ever known).

He wanted to greet her - she looked about his age and both were on their own presently but doubts niggled at the corners of his mind and so he said nothing, instead picking up his guitar again and resuming work on the earlier song, singing softly to himself and once again becoming engrossed in the music.

[Sierra]

Sierra::Thornmount Park::

Sierra could barely breathe, laughter was the only thing that was filling her lungs now. Sighing she stood up, brushing off her blue jeans, now slightly green from grass.

Picking up her notebook from the soft grass, she clambered back up on the rock and began working on a little ditty she had written for her keyboard. No words, but music at the least.

"C,C,C,D,E,D,D,C,G,A,B,C,D,C,G,G,G,A,B,C,B,C,D,C....." Sierra sang to herself. It was a lively tune, pretty and fun.

She looked out over the small pond, its waters rippling slightly. SHe spotted the culprits, two ducks, splashing about. She also spotted a teenager, about her age, sitting on a bench playing guitar.

Where have I seen this before....

Hopping off of the rock, she walked to the pond and sat on the edge. Looking down, she saw a small field mouse. Sierra picked it up, not surprised that it wasn't scurrying away. She had always had a away with animals, They were just...drawn to her.

She held the mouse, looking into its little, squinting eyes.

"You got it just as bad as I do don't you? Having to scurry around, worrying about predators..."

[Corruzione]

::Alex::Thornmount.Park::

'Hmm...' Alex mused to himself, stopping mid strum as he heard a wrong note after the first chords change. He twisted the peg of the lower E string, note humming upwards but still not tuned, and again - though too far, the string snapping in two and curling around itself at either end.

'SH..!' he stopped himself mid-way through, taking a deep breath and lowering his hand. He sunk slightly in his seat, resting back against the bench and looking up to the sky. At his shout, the ducks took off in a flurry of feathers and quacks; Alex followed their path, leaving his look on the girl across the pond - 'Is she talking to her hand?'

Alex shook his head, a shy smile reappearing on his face as he sat back up, digging around in his guitar case for a spare string. Finding one, he carefully removed the old one and threaded its replacement into place, beginning the arduous task of tightening it up without a winder.

[Sierra]

Sierra::Thornmount Park::

Setting the mouse down, she looked up, having heard a loud curse word. She wasn't much of a curse-word user herself, but didn't care if other people were.

The soft noise of a guitar being tinkered with reached her ears. She wanted to go talk to him, but her shyness got the better of her. Suddenly an imaginative light-bulb appeared over her head.

Sure that he had already seen her giggling to herself and acting weird, Sierra took her notebook in her hand and began to twirl. Faster and faster she went, careful not to fall in the water. In the blink of an eye the notebook flew out of her hands and right where she had hoped it would go. Well, not exactly.

Sierra had aimed for near the park bench. It hit the guy in the head.

Rushing over to the teenager and the bench, she covered her mouth with her hands, stifling her laughter.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to!"

Leaning over she picked the notebook and clutched it tightly in her arms.

"Oh..sorry..Are you okay? I'm Sierra..."

[Corruzione]

::Alex::Thornmount.Park::

He caught the spinning motion of the girl out of the corner of his eyes, shaking his head slightly at her antics before dropping his look to the fretboard of the acoustic. As such, the projectile that soared across the placid waters was unseen so allowing him no time to dodge it, the heavily bound notebook colliding solidly with his temple before it fell to the floor.

Bending forwards he picked it up and turned it over, one eye closed as he tried to regain his bearing, wondering where it come from and why it had targetted him. Then he heard a voice and looked up, the book removed from his grip by the girl who had been twirling and talking to her hands and laughing strangely previously. He squinted up at her.

'Oh yeah, no problem... I'm used to having things thrown at me,' he managed a weak but sincere smile, showing that it was truly okay and no ill feeling was harboured, opening his closed eye and focusing his look on her, 'Im Alex... I think...' he laughed very shortly, shuffling along to one end of the bench should Sierra wish to sit.

'So... are you giving your notebook flying lessons or something?'

[Sierra]

Sierra::Thornmount Park::

Sierra laughed and stuck out her hand to shake his. She tried to be friendly, after all, she had initiated the conversation.

"I'm glad you are alright, I really wasn't aiming, " Sierra fibbed smoothly. She didn't want him to catch on!

Alex...that's a cool name...

The blonde keyboardist laughed at his comment about flying and went on to reply.

"Well, I wanted to accommodate it so it would be nice and help me write my scores." Sierra said while sitting down near him, but not too near.

Sierra hoped that at the mention of scores and music she could spark a conversation. Nervously, she began to sway from side-to-side, her long hair falling in front of her face. The anxiety got the better of her and she reached into her bag to pull out a drumstick to twirl. It helped calm her.

She played snare drums, but mainly used them for rhythms she was working on.

The drumstick whirled quickly around her fingers, something she had learned in marching band, even though she played sax, she hung out with the drummers.

[Corruzione]

::Alex::Thornmount.Park::

Alex's eyes half followed the spinning drumstick, idly picking out notes along with the tempo that Sierra was twirling it through her fingers. Roused by her comment on music, he turned his eyes to her breifly before returning them to the fretboard, 'Oh, you write music? That's cool..' he paused, concentration taken up with a fiddly bit of fingerwork before resuming as if there had been no gap in his words, '...I write too. What sort of style do you do?'

Suddenly awash with questions, he asked another, 'Do you play drums?' motioning to the stick still spinning in her hands, stopping what had been a relentless stream of music from the acoustic guitar.

(OoC: Sorry it's short. It's late and I'm watching a movie just now )

[Sierra]

Sierra::Thornmount Park::

"Eh, mainly just piano, for me to pa-lay." Sierra said smiling at Alex playing notes on his guitar.

She had never really picked up the guitar, she had taken lessons for years, but only because her mother made her. Sierra was alright at playing the stringed instrument but preferred the piano and the saxophone.

"Do you write for guitar? Or lyrics? Or...limericks?" the blonde pianist said jokingly. Even though Sierra did write limericks.

She had been watching Alex's dark eyes follow the twirling drumstick, so she stood and quickened the speed. In a fluid motion she reached down into her bag and pulled out another stick, constantly twirling its twin. After a few seconds of twirling them both she began to click them together rapidly, the sticks moving about in all different directions, the notes emitting from them a steady stream of 16th notes.

Abruptly she moved her arms out just in front of his face and stopped the movement of the sticks. The drum-sticks were now in an X directly in front of Alex's face.

Slacking her muscles she smiled, now no longer nervous, and "sheathed" her sticks in her bag.

"Heh, mainly snare."

[Corruzione]

::Alex::Thornmount.Park::

'Well I like to think I can write both music and lyrics... but they usually get all blech and cliched...' he offered another smile to show that he didn't mind not being the greatest writer in the world, happy just to compose his tunes and chord progressions - let someone else deal with words, the music was his forte.

Alex pulled his neck back slightly as he could feel the draught from the sticks, the cooled air on his face alerting him to their closeness and the possible need to remove himself from the space that they could potentially occupy shortly. As Sierra stopped however, he maintained the somewhat awkward position and switched only his look to her, cocking an eyebrow in her direction - almost amused at the change of demenour in the young woman.

As she retreated he relaxed again, allowing a coy smile onto his face (which had sunk back to its usual neutrality soon after the last smile had appeared), thoughts straying beyond the realms of decent first-conversation topics to how good she would look minus the baggy clothes that adourned her slim physique. Quickly however, he snaped his mind back to the reality of here and now, realising the awkward silence that had fallen.

Music seemed to be common ground so hastily he continued on that path - 'So... do you have a band in which to display your talents?'

Oh yeah, brilliant question Alex... inwardly he cursed himself at what seemed a stupid question the moment it had left his mouth.

[Sierra]

Sierra::Thornmount Park::


She smiled at Alex's eyebrow raise. She loved that she could do it to, with both of them. Restraining her delight, she walked to the right a bit messing up her her hair. She liked it messy, never neat.

Her ripped bluejeans were slightly tight around her skinny legs, while her extra-large Legend of Zelda hoodie was big and floppy around her slender torso.

Her emerald eyes caught the dark eyes of Alex as he began to speak.

"Well...hmm...I walked that road before and the results at the end were...not pleasant. So no, not at the moment."

Sierra moved a lock of her dark blonde hair behind her shoulder and posed her own question.

"So what about you, Keith Richards? You in a band?"

She grinned.

Keith Richards is the bomb!....Oh my gosh..did I just say bomb? Gotta stop watching Charles in Charge.

[Corruzione]

::Alex::Thornmount.Park::

'Hmm...' he mused in response to her answer about not having a band, picking out a quiet, minor arpeggio on the strings. He maintained the silence between their voices, allowing Sierra the time that she needed to compose herself after he had so tactlessly dragged up what was apparently an unpleasant memory for her.

He paused, shifting his position - returning his composure relaxed - folded one leg up underneath himself, removing his guitar from across his knee and leaning it against the bench next to him, resting a hand on the headstock. 'Keith Richards? I like to think I'm a little better looking than him! Hell of a guitarist though...'

He threw a a surrepticious glance at the girl, eyes continuing past her to look at the blue skies that were painted above them, white clouds serving as decoration but not hindering the sunlight in any fashion, brushed past on the unfelt breeze. 'I'm not either...' he continued after the brief pause, 'Don't really need one, jack of all trades, that's me...' he finished, trying to sound upbeat.

'Doesn't mean I don't want one though... Jeez, how arrogant did that sound...' he thought to himself, an expression that bordered on lament graced across his face before disappearing, sad eyes turned to Sierra again, 'Soooo...'

Truly he wasn't good at making conversation.

[Sierra]

[Sorry, I've been out of the loop lately.]

Sierra::Thornmount Park::


Sierra laughed at Alex's response about Keith Richards. She looked past him, the swaying trees in sight. The wind had begun to pick up and her blonde hair began to move, like cattails in a marsh breeze.

"I'd say you have the same walk as him," the teenager said, as she scratched her pale, white arm. She gave a clandestine look at Alex, staring at his dark brown eyes that seemed almost abysmal.

Sierra averted her gaze when he said he flew solo. It's not like she was looking for a band, just hoping. When he spoke it made obvious that he was at a loss for words.

"You wanna go grab a bite to eat? I'm starving." Sierra said, looking down at her flat stomach, which was grumbling like a grumpy grizzly bear.

[Corruzione]

::Alex::Thornmount.Park::

He laughed shortly at Sierra's comment, 'Well if you say so! Can't say I've studied his walk much.' His face had brightened considerably during his reply, reaching around his guitar for the acoustic's case but searching blindly as he let his gaze remain fixed upon Sierra as he continued his answer, 'Yeah, food sounds good... Know anywhere half decent? I usually just stick to the same old holes in the wall...'

He lied. His usual "haunts" consisted of the homes of his parents' clients, invites to breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, high tea, dinner parties... With so much enforced socializing and formality Alex relished the opportunity of ordering in food and eating it as he pleased, rather than having to uphold a certain image (it would always be inevitable that he would meet someone who would recognise his face) when eating out.

He lay Frost down on the blue plush lining of its case, averting his look from the girl for the first time and running the cloth bandana that was around his wrist along the strings before closing the case and fastening the silver clasps.

Alex remained sitting forwards on the bench and ran a hand back over his hair, clearing his vision before looking back to Sierra, a questioning look on his face.

[Sierra]

Sierra::Thornmount Park::

She smiled and pictured Alex walking like Kieth Richards. She began to laugh, but stopped so he wouldn't think her weird. Sierra beagn to think about a good place to eat, somewhere he hadn't gone...

I could take him to Pizoli's...but I don't want Italian....He's definitely been to McDonald's and Burger King...

"The Rio Grande! That's a great Mexican restaurant a few blocks away. And..." Sierra said, digging in her bag, " I have a coupon!"

She grabbed his hand and pulled him off of his feet.

"Vamanos!" she said, throwing one a=hand in the air, the other still jerking Alex along.