paradisalogs | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Who: John Egbert and Jane Crocker
What: First meetings
When: Earlier today
Where: The Music Room
Rating: PG ish?

It wasn't that John didn't like playing the piano. It was a great way to spend time when one had so much of it to kill at Paradisa. Unfortunately it was one of those things he didn't think of doing most days, despite the fact that the castle came fully equipped with its very own music room, piano included. Every now and then John managed to remember it was there, ready and waiting for people to actually play it. He'd debated a few times just going ahead and wishing up his own piano in his room, but then the one in the music room would probably never get played.

So there he was, sitting in front of the piano, plunking at a few keys experimentally. On occasion playing out a small section of a tune he happened to know. There was no music book sitting in front of him, and if he wanted to play a full song he'd have to get up and actually go find one.

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In the search for her father, Jane would have to confess that she was coming up abysmally short. She had found no leads, no clues, and no traces of him anywhere in the castle, and if there weren't clues where she'd arrived, then the chance of finding clues outside of the castle was almost nonexistent. She hadn't quite come to believe it, though, and on impulse she would walk the castle corridors in the hopes that something might catch her eye.

She was on the third floor when she heard the piano. It was only a few notes, and it wasn't anything familiar, but ever curious, Jane went to investigate, and found a door labeled 'Music Room' with its door cracked open. She peered into the room and spotted a dark-haired boy at a piano. While she couldn't see his face especially well, she got a sense that there was something oddly familiar about him, though she couldn't name what it was. She placed a hand on the doorknob and slowly opened the door, so as not to frighten the boy.

"Hello?" She called.

After living in a castle like Paradisa for almost two years straight, it took a lot to startle John these days. The castle ghosts popped in and out of places all the time, and since John hadn't become too lazy to make most of his own meals down in the kitchen, it meant he spent a lot of time in hot spots for people to pop up in. Plus there was the constant crazy stuff going down every month or so that a person living here had to get used to after awhile.

So someone very politely trying to get his attention wasn't too shocking for him. It did jar him out of his piano playing, however, and John twisted around to see who was talking to him. Some girl with short hair that the longer he stared at her the more he could almost swear looked vaguely like his nanna. Then again, it had been be awhile since he last seen his nanna in person (or in sprite... technically), and before then it had just been pictures. No use thinking too much about it, some people just had those kind of familiar faces, so he shrugged it off and lifted a hand up to wave at her.

"Hi."

Jane hesitantly waved back with a wiggle of her fingers. Now that she saw the boy's face, she was struck with how much he looked like her Poppop. Of course, she'd only seen his stuffed corpse and pictures of her Poppop all her life, but he had the same kind of hair, the same kind of teeth...it was certainly odd. It would be a bit silly to ask about it immediately, though, so Jane filed the question away for later and stepped forward.

"Sorry to bother you," She said, "I was just walking by and I heard the piano playing. I thought I'd take a look."

Striking similarities between two strangers, sadly it was more common in Paradisa than Jane might realize. Actually, it was more common than John might even realize, having yet to meet people from alternate realities. Other universes? Sure, he was used to those kind of shenanigans at this point. Reset worlds where you were your grandmother's grandfather? Not as much.

John wiggled around on the bench seat for a moment, swinging his legs up so he could sit cross legged on it, and be able to look at the girl without having to crane his neck. Her voice also sounded kind of familiar now that she was talking some, but definitely didn't have that old lady quality that his Nanna's voice had. It was probably silly to think that it should.

"It's okay. This isn't even the first time this has happened to me. Well, sort of, the last time I got caught playing randomly I had left the journal open, so people were mostly talking to me over it."

That voice was definitely familiar; she remembered hearing it over her own journal. While she had an idea of who this might be, she didn't want to show all her cards just yet. Jane smiled. "I've learned that people tend to do that when the journal's open. Everyone certainly is chatty here."

She began to cross the room to join the boy at the piano. "Do you mind if I join you?"

I did tend to be something a person learned within the first week of staying at the castle. Any and everything that could be said over the journal basically would be. Whether it should be or not. So John knew exactly what this girl was talking about. He was a little surprised by the question, however, but none the less, wiggled himself back around on the bench so he could slide over some.

"Sure! Do you play too?"

"A little," Jane told him, and she slid on the bench to join him, neatly tucking her skirt underneath her as she sat. "I don't play that much anymore, but I still remember how to." She smiled and let one of her hands perch on the keys, fingers arched in habit. She hit one key softly, holding its note. "It's a bit like riding a bike, I think. You don't really forget."

She looked to the boy and asked, "Is there anything in particular you like to play?"

John could understand that line of thinking, especially considering how comparatively little he practiced here as opposed to what he used to do back home. Not that he was ever great about sitting down and practicing daily then either.

He put his hands in his lap and watched her hit a key. It wasn't as if he could tell how good she was or wasn't based on one note, but she definitely looked like someone who had played a piano before, so that was a good sign. Unfortunately he still didn't have any sheet music in front of him, and while he did know a couple tunes by heart, they weren't exactly popular songs most people would know.

"Not really? I was thinking I could just make some things up on the fly."

"Oh...!" Jane withdrew her own hands to let him have full access to the keyboard. "Was I interrupting your train of thought, then? I'm sorry..."

Making songs up did sound like fun - sheet music could get rather dry after a while. She really hoped she hadn't disrupted him in the middle of thinking up something really great. She twiddled her thumbs. "Could I hear some of what you've made up? If that's alright of course."

Wow, she was really polite. John hadn't actually meant to make her feel like she couldn't touch the piano or something like that. He'd be randomly plunking on keys, but it wasn't as if he had some solid song in his head, or was really trying to come up with the next great masterpiece.

He shrugged his shoulder and hit a key himself, holding it down for a few seconds before letting it go. "You weren't really interrupting anything, I was just kind of messing around, but..."

Placing both hands on the keyboard. Sitting on the far right now meant the song was going to be lower than he'd been playing it. After taking a second to reorient himself he played out a short series of notes that probably would have sounded a lot more cheerful if he and Jane swapped seats.

She hadn't? Jane felt her shoulders relax a bit. She really didn't want to upset anyone while she was here. "Oh. Alright, then."

The tune the boy played was nice, a bit somber of course. She glanced at the boy before hesitantly placing her hands on the keyboard. Jane took a breath and slowly repeated the tune back to him, the notes higher and held a bit longer. When the last note faded, she looked to the boy and smiled. Had that been the right thing to do?

It hadn't been a long song, but it did impress John how quick she had been able to pick up the tune of the song he'd just made up. Especially since he hadn't written it down. He grinned at her and played another tune, one that was a little more upbeat this time.

If Jane was worried, the fact that John seemed more amused than annoyed should put her at ease here.

John's amusement did put Jane at ease - his grin was all she needed to know that joint playing was okay. When he began playing again, she listened very carefully, and when he finished, she repeated it back to him, still at a slower pace. She wanted to make sure the notes were right.

She was pretty damn good at this! John hadn't actually had a chance to play with anyone else while here in the castle, though he was also sure there had to be other people around that played the piano. It was kind of nice, he hadn't done something like this since the last time he and his dad plunked out a few tunes together.

"You wanna try one now?"

Jane grinned. "Sure, no problem."

She played a string of simple notes, first slow so John could hear it, then once more a little quicker. She liked to play this tune in particular with her Dad, but she figured he would be happy that she wanted to share it.

John stopped, listening to the song the first time it was played. He frowned slightly, glancing down at the piano before copying the tune with ease. It was just a small section of notes, so any familiarity he might have felt was probably just in his imagination more than anything.

It made Jane smile to hear he'd picked up the tune so easily. She played another, this one longer and a bit more complicated with a trill at the end that she particularly liked. The trill started out quickly, but it then petered out slowly to allow for John to pick up the tune.

John titled his head to the side, listening to her play more than watching her. By the time she played out the very end of the song he was grinning again, before copying this song as well. Unlike Jane, John wasn't quite as careful with how he played. He played the song back possibly faster than she did, hitting a few wrong notes as he went, but he nailed the end of it perfectly.

Mistakes were fine, of course. No one was perfect. In fact, John's enthusiasm in his playing made Jane grin, and she applauded him. "Hoo hoo! Bravo, good sir!"

John scooted back on the bench just enough that he could take a small bow. "Hehe, thanks! You're really good too. How long have you been playing?"

Jane placed her hands in her lap and grinned. "Oh, a few years at least. And yourself?"

John reached over to rest one hand on the edge of the piano, the other he let drop down to his side, resting it on the bench. He squinted at the wall trying to remember exactly when he started. "I started when I was pretty little. I forgot exactly when."

Jane hummed. That was probably the best time to start playing, really, or at least she thought so.

"Isn't it hard?" She said, "Remembering things from when you were little I mean. It's like your brain just...pushes things out and tricks you into thinking things have always been the way they were." It was a little bit of an out-there thought, but it tugged at something inside of her. She hadn't been in the castle for very long, but already she was growing used to it, and part of her didn't want to. She would never find her father if she became complacent.

It was unfortunate, but there wasn't much a person could do in this castle. If you struggled to get used to it, then you just made yourself miserable the longer you couldn't find a way back home. If you became too complacent then the castle won, and that wasn't a lot better.

Having been here for almost two years, John was sadly starting to slip into the second category, and it was actually moments like this where he started feeling bad about that fact. He still wanted to go home and see his own dad, still completely unaware there wasn't a father figure waiting for him on his return.

"A little. It all kind of runs together after awhile."

Jane hummed and nodded. This train of thought was doing absolutely nothing for her morale. She didn't want to get used to this place and she didn't want to not find her father and go home - or, as much as the Land of Crypts and Helium could be home.

What broke her out of her gloomy thoughts was not a revelation of any kind, but of a little realization that had been bugging her from the corner of her mind. She turned to John.

"I just realized something - well, I had an inkling, but I'm sure of it now. I think I might have talked to you before, over the journals. What's your name?"