Arthur Lester (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
theotherright) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
come_sailaway2022-09-20 05:31 pm
theotherright) wrote in come_sailaway2022-09-20 05:31 pm
[OPEN] the labour and the wounds are vain
Who: Arthur Lester and YOU
What: The walk of shame after rafting with two other idiots off the edge of the world
Where: Around the ship
When: The day after the beach party
Warnings: The normal Arthur stuff. Traumatised man hours. Death happened. Sad about blind. Also, the thread with Bash eventually contains a couple references to 1930s homophobia, plus displays of ignorance about queer people.
Mistakes were made. Big ones. For those sensitive to that kind of thing, an invisible death counter has ticked up in Arthur from zero to one.
i. scoops
It's a big ship, but unless you count Tommy Bahamas, it's not infinitely big. Why the hell can't he find Smith or Steve? Particularly Steve-- you know, the teenager he just helped kill?
In truth, Steve is hiding in his cabin and he happens to keep missing 6, but Arthur's brain is pleased to conjure some more unpleasant scenarios, and the effort of talking it down is exhausting. Looking for people while fucking blind only compounds his frustrations, and he's already feeling a few SAN points down after the whole 'fell into the fucking void' fiasco, and he's currently searching on the promenade which is already fucking overwhelming, and so his reaction when he collides with a fucking stool that's sitting outside of Scoops is, as soon as he's regained his balance, to pick it up and toss it as hard as he fucking can across the fucking ground.
"Fuck!"
ii. tauva
...not long after that, Arthur realises that he needs to calm the hell down.
He forces himself to stop pacing and pacing and pacing and pacing. And once he stops, it's like the energy leeches right out of him, both physically and mentally. Part of his mind is still just spiralling down that invisible void, screaming.
The whole raft thing is a part of it, but it's far from the whole. He's so far out of his depth and he doesn't even know which way up is, and he's been holding his breath for as long as he can, focused on the possibility of escape, but now escape has put him right back on the ship and it feels like he tried to take a breath and instead filled his lungs with salt water.
He ends up in Tauva. It's not consciously planned. But he has been thinking about someone else who frequents the place: someone to whom he once again owes an apology.
Arthur's slumped back in one of the leather armchairs, his useless eyes closed. Until now he's perched on the edges of chairs, sat with his feet beneath him, ready to move if he needed to. This time he's just... folded into it. Head tilted down. As still as if he was asleep, or even more so, because even sleeping people murmur or turn over once in a while. The only parts of him stirring are his lips, which move as if silently singing to himself, and his hands, whose long fingers bat restlessly against one another and against the soft arms of the chair.
He is not super okay.
What: The walk of shame after rafting with two other idiots off the edge of the world
Where: Around the ship
When: The day after the beach party
Warnings: The normal Arthur stuff. Traumatised man hours. Death happened. Sad about blind. Also, the thread with Bash eventually contains a couple references to 1930s homophobia, plus displays of ignorance about queer people.
Mistakes were made. Big ones. For those sensitive to that kind of thing, an invisible death counter has ticked up in Arthur from zero to one.
i. scoops
It's a big ship, but unless you count Tommy Bahamas, it's not infinitely big. Why the hell can't he find Smith or Steve? Particularly Steve-- you know, the teenager he just helped kill?
In truth, Steve is hiding in his cabin and he happens to keep missing 6, but Arthur's brain is pleased to conjure some more unpleasant scenarios, and the effort of talking it down is exhausting. Looking for people while fucking blind only compounds his frustrations, and he's already feeling a few SAN points down after the whole 'fell into the fucking void' fiasco, and he's currently searching on the promenade which is already fucking overwhelming, and so his reaction when he collides with a fucking stool that's sitting outside of Scoops is, as soon as he's regained his balance, to pick it up and toss it as hard as he fucking can across the fucking ground.
"Fuck!"
ii. tauva
...not long after that, Arthur realises that he needs to calm the hell down.
He forces himself to stop pacing and pacing and pacing and pacing. And once he stops, it's like the energy leeches right out of him, both physically and mentally. Part of his mind is still just spiralling down that invisible void, screaming.
The whole raft thing is a part of it, but it's far from the whole. He's so far out of his depth and he doesn't even know which way up is, and he's been holding his breath for as long as he can, focused on the possibility of escape, but now escape has put him right back on the ship and it feels like he tried to take a breath and instead filled his lungs with salt water.
He ends up in Tauva. It's not consciously planned. But he has been thinking about someone else who frequents the place: someone to whom he once again owes an apology.
Arthur's slumped back in one of the leather armchairs, his useless eyes closed. Until now he's perched on the edges of chairs, sat with his feet beneath him, ready to move if he needed to. This time he's just... folded into it. Head tilted down. As still as if he was asleep, or even more so, because even sleeping people murmur or turn over once in a while. The only parts of him stirring are his lips, which move as if silently singing to himself, and his hands, whose long fingers bat restlessly against one another and against the soft arms of the chair.
He is not super okay.
Scoops
Yeah. That's a bit... much. Hopefully Arthur doesn't lash out too much because Nobunaga got the rest of his armor on after his morning exercises and darts, so full plate mail might bruise. He'll try to catch any flailing though -- since he expects such a thing.
Normally, Demon Kings kidnap princesses, but it's fine. He's been known to kidnap people he wants to make soldiers too and usually in the interviewing process, which this might be. Or he's just doing normal Demon King over-seeing-his-not-Kingdom thing. That too.
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"What the fuck?"
The surprise has dislodged his anger a bit, but his anger was so well-seated that doing so has knocked him fantastically off balance.
"Ice cream?"
Wait, he knows that voice. Is this the monk story guy???
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"Sugar always helps. Always. Have you ever had ice cream before?"
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Historical fact fun corner: during Prohibition, which was law in the USA from 1920 to 1933, many manufacturers who could no longer legally produce alcohol turned instead to making ice cream. The local soda fountain became the place to get it, with cocktails replaced by ice cream floats, and a crate of beer at home supplanted by a brick of that tasty frozen dessert in one's newfangled modern fridge-freezer. While people still found ways to get their alcohol, the convenience and deliciousness of America's favourite treat could not be denied! When Prohibition ended, ice cream sales went through the floor into hell.
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A laugh, "Ahhh? Lucky!" All beams reflected in his voice, normally extremely bass and deep, (typical Demon King!) still managing to convey just how much of a secret five-year-old he is inside. "I never had it before the ship. Well, that's to be expected. I'm from 1582, Japan, Earth. We were in Hell, and almost never had enough food to survive, never mind the technology to freeze things. Do you have a favorite flavor or want to try to something new? Today I will try my 26th of 31. I wonder when I reach the end, if they'll reset with new ones."
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The truth of the hell part is, uh, honestly that's still on the table.
"Right, hell. You mentioned."
He said a lot last night, so Arthur's a little fuzzy on the context, but something about a loved one there or falling in love there or something? Anyway--
"I..."
Arthur almost says he's going to leave, but the search is going horribly, and he's clearly in no temper to do it with any kind of thoroughness, and, uh, he almost gets the impression like someone needs to keep an eye (ha. ha.) on this guy for his own good.
A sigh. "I'll have what you're having. ...What are you having?"
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And yes, someone definitely needs to babysit the overgrown murder toddler. Might as well be you.
Which flavor is to be today?
Nobunaga has so far gone in order exactly like you'd expect a hyperactive 5 year old to decide on: and whatever looks the most wild and interesting. Crazy colors? WACKY NEW THINGS? That was done in the first day. 19 in one day. Because sanity is not Nobunaga's strong suit. "I'm saving vanilla for last because it's boring-looking, and maybe there will be a new set of 31 when I reach there." So there's 5 others to choose from. Butter Pecan, Praline, Raisin, Chocolate, and Chocolate Fudge. Because Nobunaga is five years old. His favorite is cotton candy, the one no adult will touch for being too sugary. Yes. "Chocolate fudge." He doesn't like the nut ones that much except peanutbutter. Because again... five year old here. "I only learned what chocolate is here. It's beans." Beans, Arthur, beans. "Like coffee." Blech.
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"You poor thing," he says mildly, because imagine not knowing about chocolate. Then that reminds him of something he knows, and without warning, Nobunaga has subscribed to chocolate facts. "Yes, it's-- it's interesting, actually. I'm fairly sure it's incredibly old, but for most of history it's been a drink, and they roasted the beans just like coffee. I think it was only a hundred or so years ago, from my point of view at least, that anyone thought to make anything like a chocolate bar, or put chocolate on ice cream."
You have activated: TRIVIA MODE.
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Nobunaga has NO idea at all that Arthur is blind.Arthur has also just unlocked Nobunaga's secret friendship mode. Once you put aside the Demon King idiosyncrasies, and accept that in Hell, maybe even the best person there would have to be psychotically violent (or just ignore the violence and Demon King and Hell stuff all together, because that's just Nobunaga being chuuni as hell) -- Luis Frois, and the other Portuguese missionaries, merchants, foreigners, and even all the untouchable musicians, and travelers that Nobunaga met up with weren't just pestered with a billion questions, but he treasures them even more than his weapons. And weapons are always his first true love.
Information! And giving him more questions through the information!
It's a shame Arthur can't see because Nobunaga has a stunned face, and then kind of sparkles.
"So then..." Oh, his mind is racing with possibilities!
Coffee as a drink still seemed like hell to him. But as flavoring? As food? Chocolate was a drink first? Tea was pretty bad as food though. They'd tried it. But what if coffee was just being done all wrong. "Did they add sugar and milk to the drink too? To make the chocolate drink like coffee? Wait, which came first?" Because he remembered from Dr. Watson that coffee was because it could be grown in Africa, and tea was still ridiculously far from the rest of the world. "How'd you learn this? College?" He needs to get those textbooks from Cesar Salazar as well as teach Ruby some judo throws and sumo pins. "What if coffee was made into a bar? Or a--" What was chocolate good at? "Cake?"
He merrily scoops them some ice cream and -- "Do you know what fudge is? Or the history of it? Are you a chef?"
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"One question at a time," he says, holding up his hands in mock surrender. There's the hint of a laugh in his voice. One hand still grasps the purloined shuffleboard stick that he's been using as a cane, and he is super not even slightly facing in Nobunaga's direction. "If you want me to remember half of them."
He starts at the end.
"I'm no chef; I just used to read a lot, whatever I found interesting. And fudge is... sure, I know what fudge is, but are you asking about hot fudge, or just fudge? There's a difference, it turns out, which took me by surprise when I first got to the States." A beat. "The United States. A country." Just in case.
"Fudge is... sort of a solid, soft, sweet food. Butter and sugar and milk, and sometimes other things. Clotted cream, raisins." His wife used to make it sometimes. He'd often-- never mind. "Whereas hot fudge is a chocolate sauce. Very thick. Maybe they have it here? It's supposed to go on ice cream."
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He wants to say sugoi, but he can't focus enough, and it's better to just hold off until he can string it all together, and he's only just barely coming off of his hangover. Okay one question at a time.
"The flavor is chocolate fudge. I don't know which that is hot or butter, but there are toppings too. Their sprinkles are like konpeito. Sugar confetti. Do you want hot fudge on yours?" Well, he'll have to go with two questions, because also -- "America. The country, not continents, there's two, named after Amerigo Vespucci for circling them both - the Portuguese were really proud of funding that, even though it seems to have been forgotten in the future. I think I'm almost starting to pick out Americans. They're very colorful. Bold." He loves it. They're also the most likely to have guns. Another thing Nobunaga loves a lot. "Where were you born, why did you go to the States?" It's a compound question! It counts as one, right? Though he's dying to ask why some people call the country America and others the US or States...
Nobunaga carries their bowls over to the topping and adds sprinkles to his own, because yeah, of course. "They also have waffle cones. I don't know what that is either."
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Nobunaga might actually deserve a prize or something, because all of this is actually completely distracting Arthur from his previous plan of just being a miserable bastard. The man's frame of reference is so far outside his own that, in a way, it reminds him of talking to John.
The future has indeed forgotten that the Portugese first circled America, at least if Arthur's interested expression is anything to go by. And he does in fact laugh at Nobunaga's description of Americans. "Bold, loud, somehow devastatingly prudish and incredibly shameless at the same time..."
What a wacky country.
He decides not to point out that a compound question is cheating. He also intuits that dodging completely will only invite, like, three dozen more questions. So as a compromise: "Well, England, originally. I had... I suppose a sort of romantic idea about going to New Hampshire -- that's a state, a, a province? a region? in America -- based on nothing but a book I liked. But I ran out of money and energy very suddenly in the middle of Massachusetts, another state not far down the line. A town called Arkham, though it definitely didn't exist in your time. Rest is history, I suppose."
Maybe the extra details will distract Nobunaga from the fact that none of that was actually why Arthur went to America.
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There's a laugh at the description of Americans. "Prudish?" Ah, is that so? Was that where the difficulties for Jeff and the others of the rock'n'roll lifestyle came in?
"Province," nod. He gets provinces. States are like provinces. Deputies are samurai. Easy comparisons at least. Though the sheer size of America makes him think the states are nearly countries, more than the 150 extremely divided provinces he'd been trying to unify by force in Hell, Japan. Nobunaga grins about Arthur's reasoning; based on a book. It's as good a reason as any, isn't it?
"None of the States existed in my time." Nobunaga points out. "England was about to go into a holy war with the other two countries of the island--" a face scrunch. he doesn't want to embarrass himself, getting the names wrong to someone who lived there, but -- "Wales and Scotland... I think. Because of King Henry VIII's departure from the Catholic church. I knew of this because... it was extremely poignant to my own situation. I wanted to unify the 143 provinces in Japan, and end the wars, by force if necessary." Rule the world by force. The other motto to the Oda army. - He's exaggerating slightly. Most historians would say it was about 69 (nice) provinces that Ieyasu Tokugawa stuck with into the future, but Nobunaga would argue with them completely and point out that they viewed each family as united, when they were anything but, (see also: his wars, more than one, with his own brother/s, Uncle, etc.) and many of the provinces only allied as a last resort to face and put up nominal resistance to Nobunaga.
"It's still strange to me to see it's not Spain in control," Nobunaga laughed softly. "The Pope divided the world on a map, said a small part of South America to Portugal, the rest to Spain. And then they still had trade with us, but it was so difficult for them to reach us at all, they needed extra incentive, that is what I worked on doing. Making sure they had it. I'd never met an Englishman before here. But now it's the main language. I suppose the King's gamble paid off? I wanted to have less bloodshed if avoidable, but if ignoring the Pope worked for him so well..." Nobunaga shakes his head and laughs again. "Well, I'm sure it's just as well. I really need to get those history textbooks from Cesar Salazar later today."
Speaking of which -- "I know I already asked about prudish," and he still wants to know, have it elaborated on or explained or given specific examples! "But which book was it? It sets my heart singing every time I've proven right about some of my theories that I couldn't have possibly tested in my time. One of them that culture is the best, most effective, product to conquer hearts and minds with." Mufufufu. He doesn't even know that Cesar Salazar is a weeb - or what that means yet.
And he's going to fuck Arthur up with all the hot fudge, chocolate sprinkles, and maybe chocolate chips.
You let a 5 year old make your sundae and didn't specify much beyond that, this is only to be expected!
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The constant conversation at least makes it easy to keep track of him, as he moves around dumping, like, 50% of the Serena's store of toppings onto their two bowls of ice cream. Arthur swings his foot out gently to find one of the freezer chests, then rests on it one-handed, feeling like the eye of a very excitable storm.
"Well," he says, once Noabunaga seems to pause for breath, "I'd be astonished if you'd heard of the author, since he was a few years after your time, but it was a book of poetry by Robert Frost. I'd read it cover to cover and back to front by then. And it made the place sound... I don't know. Innocent. Uncomplicated." Impulsively, he recites a part he read a hundred times. "Well if I have to choose one or the other, I choose to be a plain New Hampshire farmer, with an income in cash of say a thousand, from say a publisher in New York City. It's restful to arrive at a decision, and restful just to think about New Hampshire. And, and then it ends in a little joke after that, but I- well I liked the sound of it. Not the farming part necessarily, but the idea of... of peace. Of a place where people's biggest problem was their having no real problems."
A pause as he loses steam. This was more detail than he strictly intended to go into. He just has a lot of feelings about poetry! "No deeper meaning to it than that."
omg Arthur no I'm actually sorry for once T_T ALSO OW MY HEART fff
Unfortunately, Arthur has made the 2nd most egregious error he could with Nobunaga.
Nobunaga writes poetry.
He has already begun his poetry club.
You are now being shanghai'd into it with the same gusto that Nobunaga gives all his generals when he
abducts courts proposes engages seducessteals them. There is no option to refuse. His army's motto is join or die. You can't die here. So in this case Arthur doesn't get to get out with an "or." He's just going to join.The third mistake is that Nobunaga has never known peace, loves farmers, and HAS to kidnap Arthur now, because apparently they are kindred spirits. Next Arthur will talk about mocking nobility and undermining caste systems and his long-term dreams of fixing/freeing the whole of humanity even if it means declaring war on God.
"I have 3 members
In my poetry club now
You will be my fourth."
It's not a request. And it's not an invitation. It's a declaration
of warof fact. He will literally pick Arthur up as needed and carry him to poetry club meetings and set him down, worse than he dragged him for ice cream.There is no 'or die' for Arthur. It's just abduction. Pure 100% abduction. Arthur must be part princess without knowing it.
For what it's worth, Nobunaga only knows haikus and generally religious poetry -- so psalms, and some Hinduism stuff (a lot of Buddhist obvs) so English poetry which was in its infancy in his time, is probably completely unrecognizable to him. This will not save Arthur though, because it just means Nobunaga wants to know and Arthur has exposed himself as a viable teacher. Though Oda does know about the Portuguese cantiga de amigas, because of fucking course he does.
"You're right, my time period means I'm restricted, but I learn quickly." So quickly.
"My first Portuguese book other than the bible, from Luis Frois, a Portuguese missionary -- was of Cantiga de Amigos. Songs of Friends. Fernan Rodriguez de Calheiros 5th especially spoke to me."
He sets the ice cream out, the chair out for Arthur, and grabs a seat opposite.
"Hideyoshi is my right hand. The son of a peasant, he has a bit of a complex being raised to Demon King, and always wants to prove himself. He's the only man who might be as strong as me, maybe stronger, but we have no way of knowing, because he's insanely devoted. I miss him now more than I think I would miss my actual internal organs. He's always a monkey on my back. He likes to mother hen -- part of proving himself, to himself, and trying to look after everyone is just... Even without my position as King here, it's not in my nature at all."
If Arthur doesn't come get his ice cream, he'll pause mid-recitation to drag him over and actually make the connection he's blind. Otherwise:
"I got really angry with my friend
Because he does whatever I tell him to.
Since I know that he loves me so
I get angry with him for that.
And if someone else makes me upset,
I get angry with him, and it’s only right.
Since I know that he loves me so
I get angry with him for that.
And he already knows how I am,
’Cause I dump all my anger on him.
Since I know that he loves me so
I get angry with him for that."
So you can see why he finds it so damn relate-able, right?
"Were my monkey here
He'd give me Hell for ice cream
But I'd not need it."
There's a way to how Nobunaga says need, like it's a pun on heed as well. He wouldn't need the ice cream, or the nagging, if Hideyoshi was there, because he wouldn't have been hung over either.
Nobunaga laughs softly. "He doesn't let me eat too much sugar. And last night was the first time I ever went drinking without him. He's been with me since I was thirteen. Clan leader. I warned Mr. Summers, oni - Japanese demons, get extra wild when we drink, and I'm no exception. But Hide's always let me go wild without ever killing anyone. Sometimes that's a pain. Even if I want to kill someone, he'll beat the hell out of them before I can move a muscle." Another laugh and a head-shake. "I was building the country for him and Ieyasu to take over. Neither of them are into exploring. Ieyasu wants to heal the country, like he heals soldiers after battle, and Hideyoshi wants to nag the whole of Hell to death." More laughs, and he digs into his own chocolate hell ice cream. Okay... that's intense even for him. What the hell did he do. "Even so..." a wicked smirk that is somehow even audible in his evil chuckle.
"I'm still mad at him
Just because he is not here
How dare he be home?"
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"All-- all right!" Why not!
Particularly since it seems like he's going to be on this ship for longer than intended!Hideyoshi. He notes the name, but "I hope you can see him again soon," is all he can think to say. He knows how it feels, to miss someone that badly-- but as he found last night, apparently this world isn't letting anybody leave it too easily.
Nobunaga, thank god, doesn't give him a chance to start thinking about the fall, or the gnawing of the air. Instead Arthur is dragged to a table to the tune of more poetry, and he can't even be mad about it. With a spoon, he identifies in his bowl:
- sticky fudge
- more fudge
- good lord that's a lot of fudge
- small solid bits, which he tries one of and identifies as chocolate (covered in yet more fudge, and holy shit, it's sweet)
- smaller solid bits, that he's going to have to take on trust because they're too small to get hold of on their own (hypothesis: konpeito?)
- oh, there's the ice cream
Okay, he has to ask. "Did you just... ad lib all of that?"
Then he finally puts a spoonful of the whole Sugar Coma By Chocolate concoction in his mouth, and immediately goes on an entire face journey through the stunning realms of Extremely Rich and Exceedingly Sweet.
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"Not the Cantiga de Amiga. But yes, the rest. The haikus. I haven't tried writing my own European style poetry yet. I know that one is set to music. I can sing, not as well as Ranmaru -- my pageboy, he's a professional performer, but without knowing the tune, I'm hesitant to try such things. And I got that from a book, the musical composition wasn't included. I know--"
A quiet hum and Nobunaga closes his eyes in thought, trying to piece together his rambles and constant stream of consciousness. "Europeans have operas. And Austria is -- I want to see it." A giddy laugh! "I have a glorious white eagle from there. But until here, I never heard a piano. Just told about them. We have flutes, drums, strings, but the monks--" an annoyed tsk. "They view such luxuries as antithetical to ascension." One question at a time, he will spend his: "Have you been to the bar that plays a lot of Billy Joel?" More laughs. "I thought piano would be more elegant. Like my eagle. Soaring to the highest of mountain peaks. Stronger like drums! I'm not complaining, but it was rather like my first time touching wool. So scratchy and inferior. Nothing like the pictures of sheep! They look like clouds or little flowers. How can their hair be rougher than feathers?"
A single break to shove chocolate abomination in his mouth and nom it down. Intense. Perhaps he has been too harsh on coffee, if it is like this!
"Sheep look so fluffy
White, wholesome, and pure like snow
So none survive hell."
He nods,
oblivious that his companion can't see itquite proud of himself."The sailors do bring some instruments with them sometimes, but obviously no pianos." Another laugh, and more nomming of chocolate hell.
As for not seeing Hideyoshi again...
It's the first time the thought truly sinks in. Of course, if they couldn't go back, that was the logical conclusion. "That's the first time I've thought about it," more soft laughs, and devouring chocolate hell. "He's been my right hand since I began the path of war. Decades. I've thought, 'Oh, it's good he's not here. I can trust him to pull Japan to freedom,' or 'Now there is no reason to hold back on sugar.' Or 'Getting the monkey off my back is a monkey's paw wish after all.' Never what it would be like to go indefinitely." A quiet hum. More chocolate. And a sneaky subversion of the one question rule. "I don't suppose you've anyone like that yourself."
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And if the floodgates of infodumping open upon him now, he has only himself to blame.
"Oh, is that who they're playing? Yes, I've been there." Arthur has heard the music coming from John's, and even stopped in to listen to it, but he couldn't have said he recognised any of the songs, and he doesn't recognise the name either. Maybe the songwriter is native to another world, or from after his time.
Okay but he has to defend piano's honour though. This is not negotiable.
"But listen, don't- don't write off the piano because you've only heard a few music-hall jingles on it. I wish I could play you, I, I don't know, Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, or Liszt's Liebestraum, or -- god, any of the pieces that takes hold of your heart and pulls it, whether you will or no, through an emotional story, through a tragedy or a triumph or..."
He's jabbing his spoon into the ice-cream as he speaks, animated. "Piano can be -- yes, rough, and, and unrefined, if the occasion calls for it; or it can be elegant, and-and devastating and rapturous." A more succinct way to put this finally occurs to him, and he adds abruptly: "It's versatile. It's-- you know, the same words are used to write a poem, whether it's a simple limerick or an epic. The keys of a piano are like the words in a poem. What comes out depends on how you use them, and there's such a-- such a scope possible."
Whether by choice, or by conversational tunnel-vision, Nobunaga's other question sits unanswered.
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But he too is distracted by Arthur's passion for the piano.
"Is that so?"
Ah, that sounds so underwhelming for such high praise! "You speak of it more fondly than I do weapons. That's wonderful." He's still not conveying his appreciation very well. Passion is everything! Enjoyment is what makes life worth living. "Enjoyment is what makes the hardships of life worthwhile." Oh, is that too stark? Fuck it. "Thank you for rewarding me with this sublime poetry praising the versatile triumph I haven't begun to comprehend." Better.
"How long have you played?" It was the same presumptuous question he asked of gun users and blade users. A piano was a weapon of the heart.
Oda's other question was forgotten too. Must not be important!
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"I- I don't." Okay that was a bit of an abrupt answer. "That is, I, well, I learned it when I was young, but I haven't played in- in some time. I just... like to listen to it, that's all."
And that is the whole story and everything there is to say about it, and Arthur's now put more ice cream in his mouth, so he couldn't say more about it even if there was more to say, which there isn't.
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"What happened?" A gentler man would let it lie. Nobunaga isn't gentle, or kind, but even so: "No, never mind." One accident like any others. This isn't his world to conquer, and opening old wounds wasn't healing. Besides what a waste of a question. Oda couldnt do anything about it even he knew. It'd be like asking Nobunaga why he didn't view swords as sport.
"If you still enjoy listening, I should very much like to sometime over drinks. Do you have a favorite, or one you would most recommend a neophyte to the art?"
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"I... would like that, I think. Yes." Who would have guessed that the guy who was super psyched about beheading monks would turn out to be not so bad? Or maybe Arthur just has a habit, now, of collecting homicidal friends. Who can say.
"If I had my records with me, I could recommend you all sorts of things." And he's on the brink of starting to do so, before something mind-boggling occurs to him: "I- good lord, you're from-- you're from before recorded music, aren't you? Do you know what a gramophone is?"
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"No, I don't." Nobunaga tilts his head in thought. "I know phone means sound. I have been shown them before." Even before here. But that was difficult to explain. "I'm not sure what 'gramo' means. Is it Latin? I don't recognize it. I did see Cesar Salazar's recorded song last night. On his phone." He's very proud of this!