002 ♫ Music

[musicite.livejournal.com]

[There is a heavy sigh before Zoisite lifts his hands to the piano (he's seated at one, in a nondescript room with billowing curtains at its windows). He closes his eyes.

Just as he's done every day, almost every moment, since arriving in this configuration of worlds, he reaches out through his music. He reaches through each communicator that the song passes through, feeling his way for Endymion's presence.

The piece is constant, steady, flying through its higher notes with amazing runs and arpeggios; to the listeners, it's likely to bring nostalgia and thoughts of times long past - childhood moments half forgotten, old friends and lovers. Zoisite opens his eyes.

Again, there is nothing. He cannot sense Endymion. The music shifts its mood, seamlessly. He speaks without interrupting the deft, sure movement of his hands, almost to himself.]

My music should also be able to repel these Heartless.

Comments

[musicite.livejournal.com]

[He continues playing smoothly, even as he speaks; the music forms a constant background accompaniment. He does not ask whether Ed is troubled, in fact he gives no clear sign of whether he's noticed the tears himself or not.]

But it cannot reach where I wish it to. [Though the words are obviously regretful, he says them softly, and still calm.]

[alchemicgenius.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry. [Ed says honestly, softly, but he rubs the back of his hand along his cheeks.]

I've never heard music like that before.

[musicite.livejournal.com]

Until now, very few humans have.

[He has become accustomed to the fact that his music is no longer sequestered among the shitennou (or his former attacks on the sailor senshi).]

[alchemicgenius.livejournal.com]

I don't generally listen to music, that's all.

[He opens his eyes, rubbing them again.]

Do you play a lot?

[musicite.livejournal.com]

[The question his comrades are more likely to ask is, 'Do you ever stop playing?' Zoisite's lips quirk in a tiny smile as he thinks of it.]

Very frequently. It is very important to me.

[alchemicgenius.livejournal.com]

[He offers a little smile. Talking is distracting him from the memory he'd experienced and is grounding him a little.]

I get that. I'm an alchemist and that's important to me. Well you're a really good player...I think, but I'm not the best judge, heh.

[musicite.livejournal.com]

[It's alright; his comrades find the memories difficult to handle, too.]

Alchemy is a very ancient study. [The observation is neutral, inviting Ed to say more if he will; Zoisite treats it ambivalently.]

[alchemicgenius.livejournal.com]

Is it? I think people have been studying it since Amestris was founded, but that was only four hundred years ago, not exactly ancient history.

[musicite.livejournal.com]

[When Zoisite speaks of ancient and old, he speaks of the tens of thousands of years ago that he once lived on a different Earth than the one he was brought here from.]

There were alchemists many thousands of years ago, where I am from.

[alchemicgenius.livejournal.com]

I know there were alchemists in Xerxes, but I'm not sure how old their civilization was when it disappeared.

[musicite.livejournal.com]

It disappeared? [He glances away from the piano to look directly at the video, but his hands still continue playing; he knows this instrument like another man knows the body of his lover.]

How did this happen?

[alchemicgenius.livejournal.com]

No one is entirely certain. Xerxes disappeared in one night. The rumour is that they were practicing human alchemy there and it rebounded...but I can`t be sure. Nobody seems to have recorded much of anything on Xerxes and that was before my country was founded.

[musicite.livejournal.com]

[A similar past to his own world, perhaps; perhaps with a different cause.]

It is possible. Many worlds have more past than they realize.