why can't I hold all this indie

[gadjos]

Who: Mirror!Peter & Open.
Where: One of the music rooms
When: Two days after the crossing
Rating: PG
Summary: Melancholy & Pianos
The Story:

On the first floor, down one of the more well-traveled hallways, there is a room adorned with instruments from all over the multiverse. It's the simple sound of piano that fills it now, though, seeping out of the half-open door and invading the hallway.


Rumancek sits at the bench, head bowed and face hidden behind artfully tousled hair, lost in the piece he's playing. Music is different on this side, much less gray and hollow than on Mirror Side. He's not all that interested in puzzling out the answer to the riddle, he's not interested in messing with any Reals, he's just here to feel a little more alive.

It's a vacation, nothing more, nothing less.

Comments

[rumantic]

The music trails off again at the question, and after a beat of hesitation, he turns to look Blake in the eyes. He studies the other man's face, gauging, deciding whether or not it was meant to be offensive. He can't tell, ultimately. Blake is too hard to read. Either way, it is crassly abrupt, a little too probing for a man he doesn't know, and he calmly closes the lid over the piano keys.

"Does it matter?" He asks, raising an eyebrow. "Really, truly, does it?"

The bench slides out with a loud scraping noise, and he rises. Takes a moment to adjust, smoothing wrinkles out of his shirt. "You guys think we're all the same, and you've only got two reactions to us. Hatred- which I get, I guess, I hate most of us, too. But the second one's worse."

[oversight]

"It's not as much pity as you think, if that's where you were goin' with that," he says in response, his hands sliding into his pockets. "Or even distant intrigue. I know you're not all the same 'cause I've met more'n one that wasn't even close to wantin' to take my head off.

"Everybody's here's got the ability to be what they want, near as I can figure. Maybe it means a mark for you guys, maybe it means deaths for us, but we do choose." Mirror Meltzer had been the first to prove that to John and he wouldn't dare take that for granted. For whatever reason, he felt almost as fond of that man as he was the Real Mark.

Blake tries not to look too bristled. "So, yeah, it matters. Wouldn't ask if it didn't. In case you haven't noticed, I'm not exactly the chatty-chatty smalltalk type."