A different kind of show on Labyrinth Gardens

Nathaniel Leon

May 21, 2009 8:10 PM

A different kind of show by Nathaniel Leon

The magic had left Nathaniel. No, not the literal magic that the muggleborn hippie-bred boy had found himself having around this time last year, but the magic of having magic. There was still glitter in his eyes when he repeated his stories of his first year at Sonora to Dad and Mom and Star and Lucy. They had glitter too, well Lucy had never thought that magic was fake so hers was more of that “I told you so” look that children were allowed to give adults when they were right, but still. Everyone else was in awe, and they hadn’t even seen the school yet. Nathaniel wanted to show them the school, he wanted to show them everything.

Unfortunately, he hadn’t been able to so far. So instead, he stuck Lucy with the pygmy puff, let her play with that magic while he was away. She had named it, it was her friend to name after all, she’d tamed it to be hers. And he’d heard the name walking out, Whistle, it was a funny name, and he giggled now thinking that the purring puff would be called Whistle. Not that he found it wrong, no he liked it, it was interesting, different for a puff. If she wanted it to be Whistle, it would be Whistle. He had sort of… just wished though… that he could bring the pet to Sonora with him. The boy could find himself homesick quite often.

But he had his flute. It was the best he could deal with. He had a few of Lucy’s old instruments, and he thought about bringing the guitar, but that was left behind. He had Mommy’s painting in his room, he shouldn’t be homesick ever. There was magic after all, but even the first day back he found himself wanting to share his luck. He hadn’t talked much at the feast, it was a first.

Now though, Nathaniel was ready to start jumping up and talking and running around like crazy. He walked, and played the flute, and jumped around through the Gardens, breaking his tune to laugh when he thought of something funny. He moved in circles, the paint stained robe fluttering around him and tickling his ankles, revealing the red-and-splattered shorts he wore underneath. He started on a simple flute rendition of a Disney song, the one about being a king. Mom and Dad didn’t really like him to watch popular movies, but there wasn’t a lot to do outside in the dark, and the movies would show on the TV when they changed the channel from slow news, and he found himself enjoying them, almost guiltily.

Nathaniel jumped up onto a bench. “Oh I just can’t wait to be king!” He sang out, quite loudly, bowing low and quickly snapping up. He took a step back, about to put the flute back to his lips and continue playing, but Nathaniel found himself falling… backwards, over the bench. He landed with a thud to the ground, moaning slightly from the pain, and glancing around to see who saw. Though he was blushing, embarrassed, he couldn’t quit smiling. At least he didn’t look like he was about to cry or something, he had always been made fun of when he used to cry in public.

0 Nathaniel Leon A different kind of show 133 Nathaniel Leon 1 5

Juri Dahlgren

May 22, 2009 10:02 AM

Glad it's not a horror show by Juri Dahlgren

Like his summer, Juri’s interests were starting to split. Oh, it wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy combining his love of music and his love of mechanics to create something unique, but it was just easier to keep them separated. The Judge found anything beyond classical music to be a waste of time, but he encouraged Juri’s interest in the mechanical, something about it being manly, so every time that he was at his father’s, his hobby was to do something along this lines. By the time he went home to his mother’s, all he wanted to do was get lost in music and so she had suggested that he take up an actual instrument.

It had taken him weeks to find the one. He started out by trying the drums, which had been fun, but he had also had to consider what a pain it would be to try and haul the set to Sonora, which ruled that out. So from there that had to be the first thought. Could he take it to Sonora? Would it function at Sonora? Anything that used electricity was definitely out, but that hadn’t mattered. None of it mattered for when he saw it, he knew that it was love. It wasn’t even necessarily the type of instrument, a guitar, but it was the absolute personality that rang out in volumes. It told a story, one that he wanted to add to.

Though the soundboard was still in great shape, the backing was interlaced with various personal touches, pictures, engraved initials, all telling of who had owned the guitar before him. He had yet to decide what he would add. He had thought about just his initials ‘JD,’ but it didn’t seem like enough. It seemed impersonal. Perhaps, it was because he was still learning, still had his journey with the guitar to go through and it was this thought that he would wait until he had suffered through the learning process. The only problem to the learning process was that he didn’t think his roommates would be as keen on it.

Besides, it was a beautiful day out, why waste the sunshine? And so it was with this that he found himself out in the Gardens on a fairly secluded bench. Closing his eyes, he ran one hand over the instrument feeling the waiting life of the guitar before placing his hands in the appropriate spots. That was the easy part. Switching between chords was not so easy. Because he was twelve, he still had small fingers that would sometimes miss where they were supposed to land. It sounded horrible to his sensitive ear, which was also picking up something else? It certainly wasn’t the sound of his instrument.

Holding onto his guitar, Juri followed what he heard to an area, not unlike his own. There stood Nathaniel, the name only known due to the classes, belting out a lyric from The Lion King? He had seen that movie and though he would never admit to it, he had cried when Mufasa had died. Thankfully, he didn’t have time to think about this part when the other boy fell backwards over the bench. Juri ran over to lean over the bench, making sure Nathaniel was all right. The fact that he was smiling was pretty good indication that he was probably fine, but he thought to ask anyhow as he held out a hand to help the boy up, “You okay? Nothing broken?”

0 Juri Dahlgren Glad it's not a horror show 127 Juri Dahlgren 0 5

Nathaniel

May 23, 2009 3:39 PM

A comedy routine perhaps? by Nathaniel

Right above Nathaniel, on the bench he’d just fallen off of, the boy saw a face. Now, having just hit his head fairly hard on the ground… and also not having enough cells in that part of his body to start out with, Nathaniel originally believed that Juri Dahlgren was some sort of angel, and that he was sitting on some pretty puffy cloud with a white dress on, a halo just like the sun made around the other boy, and his flute clasped in his fingers waiting to be played with whatever instrument angel-Juri wanted to play with the newly-made angel-Nathaniel. It was a fun idea while it lasted, Nathaniel watched Juri hold out his hand, and the boy giggled almost maniacally, and reached out to shake the boy’s hand.

“H-hi, Juri-angel. Am I an angel now too? N-Nathaniel-angel sounds like a very long name, though,” he giggled a little more, finally using the hand in his clutch for the reason it was intended, to sit up. Blinking, he saw the green of the grass, and the fact that the clouds were above him, not under him. He also could feel the pain simultaneously shooting up his back, and Nathaniel didn’t think angels or dead people were supposed to feel pain anymore. “Ow,” he whined, but looked to Juri, “I’d feel better if I actually was in heaven, I think. But I’m good enough for the living,” he tried to move to his feet, then groaned. “Okay, scratch that. I’m not good enough, but I will be, just let me sit for a while.”

There was something missing though, and the boy’s eyes widened quickly, and he twisted just a little too hard. A bark came from him, the pain in his back and he winced, instead sliding his hands around and up front until they met with the cool metal of the flute. He breathed a sigh of relief, noting that it was not broken anywhere. Then he looked back to Juri, unable to keep the laugh away. “This probably wasn’t how you imagined your day would come to,” he pointed out with a small wink, trying again to stand, but whimpering down again. “A-anyway, how did you like the show? Normally, I don’t fall…” but then he thought… “No, actually I do fall a lot. Ow,” he tried to point with his hand, but was hindered by the pain that shot up there.

Instead he nodded to the guitar, smile covering up the momentary pain yet again. “Do you play? I’ve tried guitar before, but it hurts my hands. Calluses have to build up, but it hurts when you’re starting out,” he held out his hands, low enough so the shoulders wouldn’t ache, as if that was proof of something. Nathaniel nodded, beaming, however the crick there stopped him again, and he stiffened. Trying not to look as uncomfortable as he felt.

0 Nathaniel A comedy routine perhaps? 0 Nathaniel 0 5

Juri

May 24, 2009 2:59 PM

With Nathaniel anything's possible by Juri

Nathaniel’s description of Juri being an angel caused the boy to quirk an eyebrow. He was certainly not an angel by any means, but he didn’t bother to comment on the fact since it was more important to make sure that the boy was all right. Though, with talking about them being angels, it was quite possible that he wasn’t. The whining of pain confirmed the fact, but it was probably a good sign that his head seem to be coming back to the Earth. “Sure, “ he said. “It looked like you took a heavy spill. I can’t imagine it not hurting.” The problem with falling backwards is there was nothing to soften the impact.

Juri’s head tilted as he watched the sudden twisting and then the laugh. Odd, very odd. He was about to suggest they go see the medic when Nathaniel started talking. He knelt down, balancing his elbows on his knees so he could look him in the face. “I think the show needs work. Or is it your balance?” It wasn’t meant as an insult, but Juri was nothing if not honest. Sometimes it tended to be a flaw like when he had told the Executioner just what he thought of her. Yeah, that hadn’t gone over to well. He had ended up grounded for the rest of his time there. He would have been grounded at home if his mother hadn’t thought it funny.

“Um, yeah, sort of,” Juri answered in reference to the guitar. He shifted so he could pull the guitar forward. “This is…well, the name hasn’t come to me yet.” Every guitar should have a name, but it had to be something to be remembered, something that had a memory associated. Otherwise, it was just a name like any other. “I’m just learning and yes, my hands hurt.” He stretched one out to show how red it was from practicing. “Calluses are good though. It shows hard work.” Dang. There went his father’s values again, but he supposed they were his mother’s too. That thought left him a bit more settled. It also brought up his original thought. “Do you want to go to the medic?”

0 Juri With Nathaniel anything's possible 0 Juri 0 5

Nathaniel

May 28, 2009 5:24 PM

And now you're in for an adventure! by Nathaniel

Juri commented on the spill, to which Nathaniel just laughed off… then groaned a little when the laughter reached his sides, splitting them in a feeling that was quite literal. “Ah, ow, no, it was just a normal spill,” he blushed, knowing that the other boy had seen the whole thing. How embarrassing this was, to have been caught in such a clumsy act. He would have liked to at least looked like less of a silly idiot in front of another person. But, at least Juri didn’t seem to think down on him for it, he didn’t know what he’d do if the other boy scoffed and walked away.

The boy bent closer to Nathaniel, which made the other boy happy. So Juri was going to stay with him until he could stand? Wonderful, lovely, Nathaniel could chat with the other boy. He never had much time to last year, they worked together maybe once, but never talked really. Nathaniel wanted to talk to everyone. Though, the color on his face deepened when his balance was brought on stage. “Maybe a bit of both. The show was a test, I’ll perfect that, and I’ll show you then!” he beamed, but the smile fell to a nervous laugh, “The balance, I don’t think that’ll fix itself up too easily. Though, I don’t think I’ll jump on a bench next time, ya know?”

He shrugged this off… figuratively since he was trying not to move too much right now, and then took more notice of the guitar. The not moving thing wasn’t really working when Nathaniel held out his hands to show their lack of roughness, despite the years with the guitar. He liked the flute, and the piano too, his hands were still small, but his fingers were fairly long for a twelve year old. Stretching them hurt less than roughing them up. “You’re more noble than me,” Nathaniel admitted about the calluses. He wasn’t a lazy boy, but the way the fingers felt like they would bleed… “Oh no, this happens a lot. Don’t bother the medic. But, could you stay here with me?” he pouted a little, hoping to not be left alone.

As for that guitar, a name. He liked that Juri was waiting for the name, but that wouldn’t stop Nathaniel from trying to help. Tenderly scooting forward, he examined the thing. It looked very old, worn, like a few his daddy had in the basement. There were little doodles, scribbles he could see. It was a pretty thing, “It reminds me of an old man. You know, wisdom and stuff and all that time,” he commented, looking up at Juri. His fingers tapped on the scratched flute. “Hand-me-down? It looks like it has stories. My dad had a hand-me-down, he named it Apollo. Some sort of god I think, of music. Yours doesn‘t look like an Apollo though.” He pursed his lips together in thought, “Ragi. Dianne. Cerri. Marley. Page. Santana. Axel. Amos. Darby. Lolo. Benji. Ezra. Giles. Frona. Mose. Nonno,” he let out a stream of different names, some other music gods, some guitarists, some he just thought were fun.

He ended up laughing, and looking back from the guitar to Juri. “Did it like any of those? I think you’d feel it if it did. But those are only a few, I know lots of names. Unique ones are my favorites, cos no one really has them,” he nodded, “But sometimes common ones are best.” He held up his flute. “Her name is Mary, after all.”

0 Nathaniel And now you're in for an adventure! 0 Nathaniel 0 5