Video | un: holyknightfan123

[greatestfall]

[The feed opens to that sound of frantic splashing and the sound of the ocean.]

[Loud rapid-fire meows begin right at the source of the video. In view is the farther shores and a large grand piano anchored in the shallows like it had somehow washed up. Behind it is a harried teenager who looks like he's trying to figure out how to drag it out of the water.]

I'm trying, but it's sunk into the damned sand. If the bloody tide rolls in who knows what will happen to the piano case! Have you got the Omni on? I-

[A very pleased, affirmative Mrrooaahhhh!]

Shit!

[He rushes around the piano, slips and face plants into the water before he makes for a dash towards the feed. After a moment it focuses on his face.]

[He clears his throat with some dignity despite that he is drenched in sand and salt water and has a crab climbing up his shoulder. He looks like he's about to make a very formal address before he sighs in frustration.]

Oh, to hell with it. I need some help on the farther shores.

[He swipes the crab off his shoulder before it snatches his ear.]

My piano just washed up and I'd sooner eat calamari than leave it to rot. I can't offer any coin, obviously, but I'm willing to negotiate other services in return. Whatever it fucking takes.

Comments

video; UN: seeingtheworld

[schoolingfish]

Oh! I wonder if that's the same piano as the one I saw while I was swimming?

[That was about a month ago, but hey. It's possible.]

...I have no ideas, but I know a bunch of people here have powers. Maybe someone will be strong enough to lift a piano?

useless video; un: misterhatter

[payingfordeliverance]

[The advantage to having learned how the network works is that now Break knows what the boys are up to on it.

The disadvantage to having learned how the network works is that now Break knows what the boys are up to on it.]

So you'd resort to cannibalism over a piano? This is a good fact to know about you, I think.

[It's Break's distinct snide drawl, but the frame of the video is taken up by his omen's curious snoot. He hasn't bothered to learn modes on the omni yet since he can't see the bloody thing anyway.]

Video; UN: Filledwithsunshine

[onebadapple]

Oh dear! You poor thing! Would you like me and my animal friends to come and help you?

[greatestfall]

Was it underwater!?

[The color Elliot's face turns at the idea of the piano possibly being submerged is impressive.]

Is that a thing? Really?

[Will someone come along like a circus strongman and dead lift his piano? Would he be that lucky???]

[greatestfall]

[How the fuck did Xerxes Break figure out this function, he wonders. Break is great as usual, but he really did not want him to see- hear him in such a state. Alas.]

It's my piano from the Nightray manor! It's irreplaceable!

[It's worth probably more than their whole house right now. Of course he'd resort to cannibalism!]

[schoolingfish]

Not completely. The piano I saw was floating.

[...it might be a completely different piano, too. There was a lot of weird furniture type stuff floating when Luca arrived, and he wasn't paying much attention to the details of the piano.]

I don't know, but it definitely could be!

[greatestfall]

[This comment has severely confused him, please wait for Elliot to reboot.]

Are. Are your animal friends capable of moving a full-sized grand piano?

[He's a little disbelieving but also this place has shown him stranger things.]

[payingfordeliverance]

-- what, the piano? Truly?

[He'll believe Elliot if he says so; no one would know his own piano better than Elliot, and anyway Break has also gotten the distinct impression that the names and brands and things they're familiar with from home are different from most if not all other worlds. If it really is any piano from home, Elliot of all people would recognize it as such.]

Good gravy. This makes it sound like our whole lives were tossed into some cosmic ocean and beaten into shards all willy-nilly. Perhaps we've yet to find Gilbert because he's out there using his favorite stock pot as a boat and won't let it go to come to shore.

video; un: harbinger

[bolstafir]

[Well. He's got nothing better to do right now, and he's blessedly free of a migraine at this particular moment, so he might as well make use of it. This post being kind of entertaining wins it points, as well.]

...Sure, I'll help.

[greatestfall]

[Well, that's something at least. He does appear relieved that a few people are offering to help. Reaching out to strangers is hard.]

Great. Get here as soon as you can, the tide's starting to come in.

[onebadapple]

All of them together would be, I imagine so. Especially with the help of some of my much bigger friends! [Like the nightmare steeds.]

We wouldn't want your poor piano to get any more ruined!

un: eudaimonikos; video

[eudaimonikos]

Yeah, I can come get it.

[It's sort of an off-handed answer, but he's good for nothing if not Lifting Heavy Shit.]

Where're you at?

[greatestfall]

[Even if that is not his piano that is still one of the saddest things he's ever heard. What did that piano do to deserve such a fate? Nothing. Fucking nothing!!]

In the ocean? Fucking dreadful.

[Truly a travesty.]

I suppose the sort of mad nonsense we can do with our blood would leave something like that less than miraculous.

[greatestfall]

[Such confidence. Elliot is in no way in a place to turn him down, though. If this guy, as old as he looks, thinks he can move it, then by all means.]

I'm not too far from the docks. There's a battered swingset, half buried, about ten yards away, it's hard to miss.

[There's another MRROW and Elliot picks up the Omni so he can show Michael a quick look of the place. And also a glimpse of the cat making so much noise- a black fluffy maine coon.]

[schoolingfish]

Oh. Is the ocean bad for pianos? It's the first one I ever saw. It startled me at first because it made a lot of noise when I tried to help someone climb on top of it, but then he let me know it was a musical instrument.

Video: UN - Runeseeker

[onerthes]

Well well. That's quite a find. seems things are washing up to shore. I'll have to make a note of that possibility.

If you need an extra set of hands... I might be in the area.

[Came with the fact that she was watching for friends to arrive in the waves.]

[greatestfall]

Do you think I would mistake the Nightray piano for some cheap knock off!?

[On top of having the proper manufacturer's plate it has all the right dings and scratches, too.]

If that's how we find him I will kick his ass!

[Entirely because that's exactly how Elliot expects they'll find him.]

[greatestfall]

Very well, then.

[Honestly, now he just wants to see this.]

I'm on the farther shores not far from the docks. I'll be waiting.

[payingfordeliverance]

[The mental image of Elliot screaming accusingly at a squid with a clump of seaweed on its head, using a big wooden mixing spoon to paddle around in its stock pot boat, improves Break's mood somewhat. Ah, making relentless fun of Gilbert always makes him feel better.]

Well then, however you get it here, you'll want to bring it 'round the back to the double doors, I imagine. Where are you planning to put it?

[greatestfall]

[Well, there is a lot to unpack here. So much so that it stuns Elliot into silence, which is very, VERY hard to do, so, congrats, kid.]

[Even commoners knew what pianos were??? Was it possible to be so far removed from society that one misses such a thing? Or worse, is the boy from a land that had no pianos???? He simply does not want to think about that.]

It's awful for them! The water can ruin all the finish. The wood could risk rotting, gathering mold, or expanding and cracking. The water can also destroy the glue used to hold everything together, and once you break the tension on a piano, it is extremely difficult to get it put back right, again.

The less damage mine takes, the better. I am not exactly in possession of servants or the money it might take to pay a specialty repairman.

[eudaimonikos]

Alright, I'll head down.

[He's pretty close to the docks to begin with, so it won't take all that long! He jogged, even! When he arrives, he definitely looks like an elderly man with no real muscles to speak of. There's some kind of small flying dinosaur thing (with seemingly four wings?) flying along overhead him. It screeches.]

Oh, hey, piano guy!

To Action!

[onebadapple]

Well, then I will do my very best to arrive quickly.

[It's a little bit of time before Snow White arrives, she does not disappoint, surrounding her are deer, bears, horses, dogs, and a whole bunch of birds and smaller animals. In her arms is several lengths of rope.]

Oh! Did we make it in time? Is your piano still here?

[greatestfall]

[And also we know that after Elliot was done yelling at the squid in question they would both go into hysterics. That's just how it is.]

[Anyway, he nods, even if Break does not see it. He did not think it could go in through the front, it's true.]

Ah- I haven't gotten that far. Perhaps in the parlor.

[greatestfall]

I hope whatever you find shows up in a better state than this.

[Would it have killed the powers that be to package the damn thing in a crate? Send it over on a boat? Literally anything would have been better than this. Ugh, there's so much salt water.]

I'm not turning anyone down.

[greatestfall]

[He gives this guy points for being agreeable, at least. He will be found with the piano, obviously. It looks like he's taken to trying to dig the legs out but the tide is definitely starting to roll in.]

[His omen, the black cat sits some feet away as look out and begins to meow incessantly upon spotting Michael.]

Ah-

[Right, he should at least pretend he has manners, even if he's far from nobility now. He dusts his hands of sand and offers one out to him in greeting.]

Nightray. Elliot Nightray.