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stateofdecay2024-10-26 08:51 pm
soliloquacious) wrote in stateofdecay2024-10-26 08:51 pm
(no subject)
Who: Niko & Blythe (& a very rude horse)
When: October 26
Where: Prescott Fire Station
What: Old mans talk about hobbies and books.
Warnings: n/a
Blythe hasn’t spent a whole lot of time at Prescott. Aside from the Open House and the time their troupe was attacked by a zombie bear and a couple folks needed just a touch of medical attention, there hasn’t been much call to visit the little responder camp.
Which is why he’s already lost, and finds himself drawn straight to the horses instead of looking for the library or anyone in particular. He stands at the edge of their pasture with an acoustic guitar in his hands, strumming a couple easy chords while as sorrel quarterhorse bumps him with her nose and tries to nibble at the strings.
“Careful now, I ain’t got another E string,” he admonishes the horse, and does nothing to step away from her. “Then how am I gonna play Dolly for ya?”
Niko is out for a run (in an Oxford shirt and chinos, because it had not occurred to him to pack workout wear for a road trip two years earlier) when he hears the sweet strums of an acoustic guitar coming from the horse pasture. He jogs over to see who's out practicing their musical skills, and is pleasantly surprised to find that the answer is Blythe.
"Blythe! Hey man, what are you doing here?" he calls out cheerily, a little bit before he's right beside him so that he doesn't spook him, or the horse.
Blythe spins around, a smile splitting his face in two. “Oh, hey there!” he says brightly, like Niko wasn’t one of the people he had been hoping to spot while here.
“Guess you could say I had an errand to run and got here too early to learn CPR, so I'm makin’ friends.” The horse tries to grab a mouthful of guitar strap but winds up knocking Blythe back a step instead. “This one either loves or hates it, we're still learnin’ each other.”
"Heyyyyy, don't bother our guest!" Niko mock-scolds the horse, gently nudging her away from Blythe before she can take another chomp at him. The sorrel quarterhorse mostly ignores Niko except to try to take a bite of his hair when he isn't looking.
"What were you going to play for her? Sorry for interrupting. Don't stop on my account," Niko says eagerly, actually sort of excited to hear some live music, whatever it is.
“Well, if the little miss can behave herself then she’ll get to hear me take a stab at Jolene,” he teases the horse as she paws at the fence. Blythe hefts the guitar a little higher up on his chest, the heavily patched guitar strap slipping off his shoulder, and curls his hand into one of the few chord shapes he can confidently handle. “And before you go thinking that’s impressive, it uses like three open chords, even you could do it.”
"Are you sure about that? I don't even know what open chords are," Niko says playfully. "But I do know Jolene. I'm stoked." He awkwardly stands there, smiling, waiting to hear it.
“Guess we’ll have to see,” Blythe grins again and strums at the guitar, picking out Dolly’s intro notes as best he can. Playing for an actual person (that Blythe happens to think is just real neat) is a little more nervewracking than just a horse, but he’s an entertainer, and nerves have never stopped him from bringing the house down before.
“J–” The song is immediately interrupted when the horse takes another bite at the strap and tears it right in half, yanking the guitar right up against the fence.
Niko finally loses his cool and flails his arms trying to scare the naughty horse away. "Hey! Stop being such an asshole! Blythe is nice!" he yells. He isn't about to let a horse ruin this moment. He finally has a chance to hang out with a neat guy his own age, and he's not going to let this moment pass him by.
He very gently grabs Blythe by the shoulders and nudges him away from the fence. "I'm so sorry. I'll get you another guitar strap. All our horses have personality problems."
Blythe can’t help but laugh at the horse’s move, really ruining his chance to seem super impressive.
“Oh, no, no, it’s fine,” he waves away any concern as Niko moves him away from the fence and the attack horse. The guitar strap hangs loosely in two pieces on either side of the body and two of the tuning pegs have been knocked askew, but none of the strings are broken and the neck feels intact. Could be worse. “It’s been stitched before, I’ll stitch it again.” He shrugs and turns on that bright smile. “And I promise we didn’t choreograph that to cover up that I ain’t been practicing.”
Niko smiles back, but extremely apologetically. He really isn't sure what to make of Blythe's seemingly unflappable positivity, since he himself is the kind of person to enthusiastically declare he's having a great time, even if he's got a knife in his gut or panic in his heart.
"I'm sure you're great! I probably don't have a musical bone in my body, so it's not like I'm in any place to judge!" Niko insists. "Once again, I'm sorry about the horse. You wanna go somewhere horse-free? I can get you a coffee? It's probably not as fancy as what you have over there, but it's something."
“Oh, she should be the one feelin’ sorry – just lost herself a free concert,” Blythe kids and tosses the horse a glance over his shoulder. She doesn’t seem very sorry. “But I would love some coffee. You know how hard it is to make anything caffeinated last very long when you got nine actors crowded together? Unless I’m interrupting your–” He hangs for just a second as he takes in Niko’s business casual attire. “–errand?"
Niko blinks at him, confused, for a moment. Then he looks down at his clothes. "Oh, this? I don't own other clothes. Been living out of a JanSport for almost two years. It's this, or scrubs, or a suit, and you already saw the suit. I was out for a run, and I don't wanna blind anyone by doing it in my birthday suit," he explains sheepishly, chipper demeanor faltering even as he tries to lighten his justification with a joke. He clears his throat, then tries to put some more pep back into his step as he gestures for Blythe to follow him. "How about that coffee, though? Might even find a snack that's not gross! Come on, I'll give you the grand tour!"
“Gosh, sorry, I didn’t mean to–yes, of course, I’d love to see–” Blythe coughs and follows, lagging just a step behind Niko as he blushes clear to the tips of his ears at his unintentional rudeness. “Not like I can judge. You know I was still in costume when we had to hit the road? We had to collect and make everything we got in our wardrobes now.”
He jogs half a step to catch up as the pink fades from his face. “So what would you say’s your favorite place around here?”
"Oh, that's way worse. What kind of costume?" Niko says, picturing Blythe dressed as Pagliacci getting into some post-apocalyptic getaway car. Business casual didn't seem so bad compared to that. Scavenging new clothes hasn't really been at the top of his priority list, but now he was wondering if maybe he's been hurting his professional trustworthiness looking like a lecturer who just woke up after a particularly gnarly bender.
"Gertrude, Queen of Denmark, mother of Hamlet, who was Edgar," Blythe answers. "I had him very young.”
"I'd say the library, maybe? Though it's kind of lost its lustre since I've already read anything worth reading," Niko says thoughtfully. "The horse pasture's also nice when the horses aren't being dicks. Is there anything in particular you want to see? You want a flu shot while you're here? I'm only half-joking."
"You know, a flu shot I could go for, but I'd love to see the library. Maybe I could even help—" He sticks a hand in his coat and digs out a thick, yellowed, dogeared copy of Lonesome Dove. "I rescued her from her life of servitude.”
Niko looks thrilled at the sight of the humble little paperback. "For me? You shouldn't have! Oh man, I'm excited for this!" He happily thumbs through the book, genuinely delighted by the prospect of having a fun new adventure to immerse himself in, especially now that he felt like he was really going all in on the whole horseguy thing.
"Let's get you to that library, my good man. And maybe if nobody else is using it, you can teach me a few cowboy chords while we're there?"
“Ooh, soon enough we’ll have you ready for duelling cowboy chords.” Blythe’s smile somehow grows a little wider and brighter and his steps take on an extra bounce. “Just don’t forget to thank me when you win a Grammy.”
When: October 26
Where: Prescott Fire Station
What: Old mans talk about hobbies and books.
Warnings: n/a
Blythe hasn’t spent a whole lot of time at Prescott. Aside from the Open House and the time their troupe was attacked by a zombie bear and a couple folks needed just a touch of medical attention, there hasn’t been much call to visit the little responder camp.
Which is why he’s already lost, and finds himself drawn straight to the horses instead of looking for the library or anyone in particular. He stands at the edge of their pasture with an acoustic guitar in his hands, strumming a couple easy chords while as sorrel quarterhorse bumps him with her nose and tries to nibble at the strings.
“Careful now, I ain’t got another E string,” he admonishes the horse, and does nothing to step away from her. “Then how am I gonna play Dolly for ya?”
Niko is out for a run (in an Oxford shirt and chinos, because it had not occurred to him to pack workout wear for a road trip two years earlier) when he hears the sweet strums of an acoustic guitar coming from the horse pasture. He jogs over to see who's out practicing their musical skills, and is pleasantly surprised to find that the answer is Blythe.
"Blythe! Hey man, what are you doing here?" he calls out cheerily, a little bit before he's right beside him so that he doesn't spook him, or the horse.
Blythe spins around, a smile splitting his face in two. “Oh, hey there!” he says brightly, like Niko wasn’t one of the people he had been hoping to spot while here.
“Guess you could say I had an errand to run and got here too early to learn CPR, so I'm makin’ friends.” The horse tries to grab a mouthful of guitar strap but winds up knocking Blythe back a step instead. “This one either loves or hates it, we're still learnin’ each other.”
"Heyyyyy, don't bother our guest!" Niko mock-scolds the horse, gently nudging her away from Blythe before she can take another chomp at him. The sorrel quarterhorse mostly ignores Niko except to try to take a bite of his hair when he isn't looking.
"What were you going to play for her? Sorry for interrupting. Don't stop on my account," Niko says eagerly, actually sort of excited to hear some live music, whatever it is.
“Well, if the little miss can behave herself then she’ll get to hear me take a stab at Jolene,” he teases the horse as she paws at the fence. Blythe hefts the guitar a little higher up on his chest, the heavily patched guitar strap slipping off his shoulder, and curls his hand into one of the few chord shapes he can confidently handle. “And before you go thinking that’s impressive, it uses like three open chords, even you could do it.”
"Are you sure about that? I don't even know what open chords are," Niko says playfully. "But I do know Jolene. I'm stoked." He awkwardly stands there, smiling, waiting to hear it.
“Guess we’ll have to see,” Blythe grins again and strums at the guitar, picking out Dolly’s intro notes as best he can. Playing for an actual person (that Blythe happens to think is just real neat) is a little more nervewracking than just a horse, but he’s an entertainer, and nerves have never stopped him from bringing the house down before.
“J–” The song is immediately interrupted when the horse takes another bite at the strap and tears it right in half, yanking the guitar right up against the fence.
Niko finally loses his cool and flails his arms trying to scare the naughty horse away. "Hey! Stop being such an asshole! Blythe is nice!" he yells. He isn't about to let a horse ruin this moment. He finally has a chance to hang out with a neat guy his own age, and he's not going to let this moment pass him by.
He very gently grabs Blythe by the shoulders and nudges him away from the fence. "I'm so sorry. I'll get you another guitar strap. All our horses have personality problems."
Blythe can’t help but laugh at the horse’s move, really ruining his chance to seem super impressive.
“Oh, no, no, it’s fine,” he waves away any concern as Niko moves him away from the fence and the attack horse. The guitar strap hangs loosely in two pieces on either side of the body and two of the tuning pegs have been knocked askew, but none of the strings are broken and the neck feels intact. Could be worse. “It’s been stitched before, I’ll stitch it again.” He shrugs and turns on that bright smile. “And I promise we didn’t choreograph that to cover up that I ain’t been practicing.”
Niko smiles back, but extremely apologetically. He really isn't sure what to make of Blythe's seemingly unflappable positivity, since he himself is the kind of person to enthusiastically declare he's having a great time, even if he's got a knife in his gut or panic in his heart.
"I'm sure you're great! I probably don't have a musical bone in my body, so it's not like I'm in any place to judge!" Niko insists. "Once again, I'm sorry about the horse. You wanna go somewhere horse-free? I can get you a coffee? It's probably not as fancy as what you have over there, but it's something."
“Oh, she should be the one feelin’ sorry – just lost herself a free concert,” Blythe kids and tosses the horse a glance over his shoulder. She doesn’t seem very sorry. “But I would love some coffee. You know how hard it is to make anything caffeinated last very long when you got nine actors crowded together? Unless I’m interrupting your–” He hangs for just a second as he takes in Niko’s business casual attire. “–errand?"
Niko blinks at him, confused, for a moment. Then he looks down at his clothes. "Oh, this? I don't own other clothes. Been living out of a JanSport for almost two years. It's this, or scrubs, or a suit, and you already saw the suit. I was out for a run, and I don't wanna blind anyone by doing it in my birthday suit," he explains sheepishly, chipper demeanor faltering even as he tries to lighten his justification with a joke. He clears his throat, then tries to put some more pep back into his step as he gestures for Blythe to follow him. "How about that coffee, though? Might even find a snack that's not gross! Come on, I'll give you the grand tour!"
“Gosh, sorry, I didn’t mean to–yes, of course, I’d love to see–” Blythe coughs and follows, lagging just a step behind Niko as he blushes clear to the tips of his ears at his unintentional rudeness. “Not like I can judge. You know I was still in costume when we had to hit the road? We had to collect and make everything we got in our wardrobes now.”
He jogs half a step to catch up as the pink fades from his face. “So what would you say’s your favorite place around here?”
"Oh, that's way worse. What kind of costume?" Niko says, picturing Blythe dressed as Pagliacci getting into some post-apocalyptic getaway car. Business casual didn't seem so bad compared to that. Scavenging new clothes hasn't really been at the top of his priority list, but now he was wondering if maybe he's been hurting his professional trustworthiness looking like a lecturer who just woke up after a particularly gnarly bender.
"Gertrude, Queen of Denmark, mother of Hamlet, who was Edgar," Blythe answers. "I had him very young.”
"I'd say the library, maybe? Though it's kind of lost its lustre since I've already read anything worth reading," Niko says thoughtfully. "The horse pasture's also nice when the horses aren't being dicks. Is there anything in particular you want to see? You want a flu shot while you're here? I'm only half-joking."
"You know, a flu shot I could go for, but I'd love to see the library. Maybe I could even help—" He sticks a hand in his coat and digs out a thick, yellowed, dogeared copy of Lonesome Dove. "I rescued her from her life of servitude.”
Niko looks thrilled at the sight of the humble little paperback. "For me? You shouldn't have! Oh man, I'm excited for this!" He happily thumbs through the book, genuinely delighted by the prospect of having a fun new adventure to immerse himself in, especially now that he felt like he was really going all in on the whole horseguy thing.
"Let's get you to that library, my good man. And maybe if nobody else is using it, you can teach me a few cowboy chords while we're there?"
“Ooh, soon enough we’ll have you ready for duelling cowboy chords.” Blythe’s smile somehow grows a little wider and brighter and his steps take on an extra bounce. “Just don’t forget to thank me when you win a Grammy.”