Upon Vestia: Chapter Twenty-Nine

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Ivor was pretty thankful for Tala's quiet thoughts, if her unshielded thoughts were anything like her speaking voice, he'd have had a headache already.
He nodded slowly.

Matt chuckled. "I'm okay so long as there's still water nearby." Beaches were good he felt. "but no deserts or like.. vast plains of open nothing." he shook the 'water' out of his hair. "this is so weird!"

----

Ivor looked uncertain, he still wasn't convinced he wasn't totally nuts and all this wasn't some sort of massive delusion.

"Good to know," James said with a grin. "Holodeck technology is just ridiculous. It's so realistic, but it just isn't real. I've heard that eating holodeck food is really bizarre, it just kind of disappears when it goes in your mouth, and licking a hologram tastes like nothing."

"that sounds... really unpleasant actually." Matt decided. "Let's go somewhere less weirdly wet... " He looked around. "Uh... computer, new scene?"

James laughed. "You're probably right. Definitely sounds weird."

The scene faded, and now they were in a lounge, surrounded by people who looked vaguely 1920s-ish, although there were definitely some people here who weren't Terran, since they had horns or odd ears or unexpected numbers of limbs. Someone was playing music on a piano, people were chattering softly but indecipherably.

"Man, I guess this is where you go if you want a holodeck date," James said, snickering.

"Score!" Matt laughed. "I'd ask you to dance but... yeah..." He looked down at his legs disdainfully.

James smiled. "Some other time, then. I'll slow dance with you, and everyone will be jealous of me. Or of you. Or of both of us, since we're so damn handsome." He looked over at the piano, "You play, don't you?"

Matt cackled. "We'll be awesome." He declared, then nodded. "yeah, I do. Is that a request?" He grinned rougishly.

"Heck yeah, this is a request. Do you sing? I'll bet we can do some great duets. Or you can play and I can lounge on the piano and sing seductively," James laughed at the thought, this all sounded like fun to him.

Matt laughed. "yeah I sing, I dunno how well. I mean people haven't thrown things so ... If you can help me onto the stage we can kick this dude off and wow this fake audience with our awesome yeah?"

"Heck yeah, let's awe these holograms with our raw talent," James said. He looked to the stage, "Let's totally cheat and make a ramp, man. Computer, make a ramp onto the stage!"

The computer made a ramp appear next to the stage. It was nicely wheelchair accessible, yay.

"Holodecks are awesome." Matt declared and wheeled up the ramp with a little effort.

"Much better than real life. You can just make stuff out of thin air, like magic!" James followed Matt up the ramp and hauled the piano bench out of the way for Matt, then leaned against the piano. "A captive audience and stuff you can create at will, so much fun."

The stage was magically empty now, waiting for the pair to do whatever it was they wanted to do.

Matt wheeled up to the piano and adjusted himself so he was as comfortable as possible. He wriggled his fingers. "Any requests?" He asked.

"Hmm," James considered that. "I guess 'Piano Man' would be too cliche?" he said. It was the first thing that jumped to mind.

Matt laughed "I think I actually know what one!" He tested the piano keys and began the first few bars of the classic terran song.

James knew the words, since he was fond of music and had listened to quite a bit of it in his life, so he started singing along as Matt played. His voice wasn't bad, nobody would ever say he had great vocal talent, but he could hold a tune pretty well.
He hammed it up a bit, trying to look all emotional for the song. Even if their audience was just nonsentient holograms, they should totally try to impress them, right?
Or maybe James just liked attention, real or imagined.

Of course the program was such that the audience all listened in rapt awe.
Matt played away, joining in for the chorus. He could sing pretty well, albeit with a strong accent.

James looked ever so slightly smug. He liked having an audience, even if they weren't real, and it was fun to sing with someone who could actually play a musical instrument. When they finished the song, he clapped along with the obediently enthusiastic holographic audience. "Man, you're pretty good with a piano," he told Matt, grinning.

Matt laughed. "I've had a fair few really boring, really long stays places. It's amazing how many places have pianos, like, seriously, it's weird."

"I've heard it's really hard to get rid of a piano. We didn't really have them back on the space station as far as I know, maybe somebody had one in their quarters, but not anywhere in public." James smiled. "Man, wherever you keep stumbling across pianos, it sure does pay off."

Matt shrugged "maybe that's why, nobody wants em so they just leave em and hope someone will take them." Hey explained why nobody cared that he'd nicked one. "Our quarters were seldom big enough to actually use a full size piano. I.. can't actually remember what I did with mine... " He looked sheepish, for all he knew it was still in pocketspace somewhere, or he'd left it in a hotel room or something. Man, that'd totally confuse the staff wouldn't it?

James laughed. "The idea of you just casually misplacing a piano is pretty funny. Maybe you should start a piano moving business someday. I mean, people moving pianos don't usually want the piano to keep existing, right? So it's okay if they get misplaced sometimes."

Skye dipped her head then looked up again. "This room and the ranch are usually where I am when we are in space. I like to watch the stars and be around the animals."

~~
Jewel looked to Ivor then ahead again. "Where are you going?" She asked curiously

"Oh," Ellie said. She thought that sounded lonely, but then, what did she know about what hawk girls preferred? "I can leave you alone if you want," she said, not sure if Skye preferred that.

Skye shook her head a little. "No, I don't really want to be alone." She said softly.

"Okay," Ellie told her. She walked over to stand near Skye. "We won't be here on Terra too much longer, you know. Just until Armin is better," she said encouragingly.

Ivor stopped walking, looking around. "I... I don't really know..." He admitted. He got lost here very easily. "I was.. just walking." He looked at the floor.

---

Matt laughed. "hey that's not a bad idea, but then I might end up pulling out pianos when I mean to get out a beer and that'd be all kinds of awkward." He played something idly as he talked, plonking keys randomly in a jaunty little ditty. "I wonder if you can weaponise a piano..."